AUXILIARY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does auxiliary mean? 

• AUXILIARY (noun)
  The noun AUXILIARY has 1 sense:

1. someone who acts as assistant

  Familiarity information: AUXILIARY used as a noun is very rare.

• AUXILIARY (adjective)
  The adjective AUXILIARY has 2 senses:

1. functioning in a supporting capacity

2. furnishing added support

  Familiarity information: AUXILIARY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUXILIARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who acts as assistant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

aide; auxiliary

Hypernyms ("auxiliary" is a kind of...):

assistant; help; helper; supporter (a person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "auxiliary"):

nurse's aide; nursing aide (someone who assists a nurse in tasks that require little formal training)

Derivation:

auxiliary (functioning in a supporting capacity)

auxiliary (furnishing added support)

• AUXILIARY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Functioning in a supporting capacity

Synonyms:

auxiliary; subsidiary; supplemental; supplementary

Context example:

the main library and its auxiliary branches

Similar:

secondary (being of second rank or importance or value; not direct or immediate)

Derivation:

auxiliary (someone who acts as assistant)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Furnishing added support

Synonyms:

accessory; adjunct; adjuvant; ancillary; appurtenant; auxiliary

Context example:

The mind and emotions are auxiliary to each other

Similar:

supportive (furnishing support or assistance)

Derivation:

auxiliary (someone who acts as assistant)

 Context examples 

First as a comfort to Fanny, then as an auxiliary, and last as her substitute, she was established at Mansfield, with every appearance of equal permanency.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

An area of great cellular activity and growth, where auxiliary buds develop into leaves or flowers.

(Node, Food and Drug Administration)

Once attached, these “auxiliary” proteins can control a receptor’s response to glutamate or its presence at synapses.

(‘Sticky’ gene may help Valium calm nerves, National Institutes of Health)

A health care professional auxiliary in dentistry trained and licensed to provide preventive, therapeutic and educational services for the control of oral diseases.

(Dental Hygienist, NCI Thesaurus)

Nursing auxiliary whose primary responsibility is personal patient care and education, support of diagnostic procedures, technical nursing work, and patient charting which does not require a full professional nurse education or knowledge and skills represented by licensure.

(Nursing Assistant, NCI Thesaurus)

In addition to optimizing the treatment for patients with heart disease and high blood pressure, Valenti believes that music may become an auxiliary method to prevent these illnesses in individuals more prone to developing them.

(Music believed to boost hypertension treatment, Agência Brasil/EBC)

Of Miss Lavinia, who acts as a semi-auxiliary bridesmaid, being the first to cry, and of her doing homage (as I take it) to the memory of Pidger, in sobs; of Miss Clarissa applying a smelling-bottle; of Agnes taking care of Dora; of my aunt endeavouring to represent herself as a model of sternness, with tears rolling down her face; of little Dora trembling very much, and making her responses in faint whispers.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In addition to optimizing the treatment for patients with heart disease and high blood pressure, Valenti believes that music may become an auxiliary method to prevent these illnesses in individuals more prone to developing them.

(Music believed to boost hypertension treatment, Agenciabrasil/EBC)

It is the magnetic auxiliary field strength created tangentially at a distance of one meter from a straight conductor of infinite length and with negligible cross section by a circulating current of one ampere, or linear electric current density when one ampere electric current is conducted in one meter wide conducting sheet.

(Ampere per Meter, NCI Thesaurus)