auxiliary
/ɔ:g'ziljəri/
Definition
Adjective:
- Providing additional or supplementary support: Describes something that gives extra help or support to a main system, function, or person.
- Functioning in a subsidiary or supporting role: Indicates a secondary or reserve capacity, not the primary one.
Noun:
- A person or thing that provides assistance: Refers to an assistant, helper, or a supplementary component.
- (Often in plural) Auxiliary personnel or troops: Refers to additional supporting forces, often in a military context.
Examples of Usage
- Adjective:
- The hospital has an auxiliary power generator for emergencies.
- "Can" and "will" are examples of auxiliary verbs in English.
- Noun:
- She worked as a nursing auxiliary at the local clinic.
- The ship's auxiliaries, including the desalination plant, were all functioning.
Advanced Usage
- In grammar: Used specifically in the term auxiliary verb (or helping verb), which is a verb used with a main verb to express tense, mood, or voice (e.g., in "I have seen it", in "She is running").
- In military/organizational contexts: Refers to non-regular or supplementary forces or groups, such as the or .
Variants and Related Words
- Auxiliaries (n, plural): Supporting personnel or equipment.
- The auxiliaries were crucial to the operation's logistics.
- Auxiliary can function as an attributive noun (a noun used like an adjective).
- auxiliary engine, auxiliary staff
Synonyms
- Adjective: Supplementary, ancillary, secondary, subsidiary, backup, supporting, adjuvant.
- Noun: Assistant, aide, helper, adjunct, subsidiary.
Related Phrases
- Auxiliary to: Functioning in support of something else.
- The fundraising committee is auxiliary to the main board.
- In an auxiliary capacity: Serving in a supporting role.
- He served in an auxiliary capacity during the event.
Notes on Different Meanings
- The core meaning across all uses is support and supplement. Whether describing a machine, a person, a verb, or troops, an "auxiliary" entity is not the primary one but exists to aid the primary function.
Adjective
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furnishing added support
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an ancillary pump
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an adjuvant discipline to forms of mysticism
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The mind and emotions are auxiliary to each other
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functioning in a supporting capacity
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the main library and its auxiliary branches
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Noun
-
someone who acts as assistant
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