Word.ws English Dictionary

tertian

tertian adjective: characterised by paroxysms recurring every other day (that is, every third day by inclusive reckoning).

Adjective

tertian (not comparable)

  1. Characterised by paroxysms recurring every other day (that is, every third day by inclusive reckoning).
  2. Pertaining to the mean-tone temperament, in which major thirds are perfectly in tune.

Noun

tertian (plural tertians)

  1. A tertian fever.
    • And although we feele it not, it is not to bee doubted, if a continuall ague may in the end suppresse our mind, a tertian will also (according to her measure and proportion) breed some alteration in it.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
    • He died of the slow fever call'd the tertian, / And left his widow to her own aversion.1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto 1
  2. A cask of a certain size; its volume used as a measure of capacity (one-third of a tun's).
    Synonyms:
    puncheon
  3. A Jesuit going through tertianship.

Synonyms of tertian

Forms of tertian

Adjective
alternative historicaltercian
Noun
pluraltertians

Origin of tertian

From Middle English tertiān, terciān, terciāne (adjective and noun), originally often as part of the collocation fever cum terciane, after Latin febris cum tertiānā. Compare the "third" essence of tertiary. By surface analysis, terti- + -an.

Words formed from tertian

Questions about tertian

What does tertian mean?
Tertian means characterised by paroxysms recurring every other day (that is, every third day by inclusive reckoning).
What part of speech is tertian?
Tertian can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near tertian in the dictionary

  1. terthiophene
  2. terthiophenes
  3. terti-
  4. tertial
  5. tertials
  6. tertian
  7. tertians
  8. tertianship
  9. tertianships
  10. tertiapin
  11. tertiaries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tertian (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “tertian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tertian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.