"quaternary" in the noun sense
1. Quaternary, Quaternary period, Age of Man
last 2 million years
2. four, 4, IV, tetrad, quatern, quaternion, quaternary, quaternity, quartet, quadruplet, foursome, Little Joe
the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one
"quaternary" in the adjective sense
1. quaternate, quaternary
consisting of or especially arranged in sets of four
"quaternate leaves"
"a quaternary compound"
2. fourth, 4th, quaternary
coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude
"the quaternary period of geologic time extends from the end of the tertiary period to the present"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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