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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ancillary.

Subordinate; secondary; auxiliary.

9 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ænˈsɪl.ə.ɹiː/Received-Pronunciation/ˈæn.səˌlɛɹ.i/Canada, General-American[ˈɛn.səˌlɛɹ.i]Canada, General-American/ænˈsɪl.ə.ɹi/Australia
  1. Subordinate; secondary; auxiliary.

Where this word comes from

From Latin ancillāris (“ancillary; relating to female slaves”), from ancilla (“slave-woman”).

noun/ænˈsɪl.ə.ɹiː/Received-Pronunciation/ˈæn.səˌlɛɹ.i/Canada, General-American[ˈɛn.səˌlɛɹ.i]Canada, General-American/ænˈsɪl.ə.ɹi/Australia
  1. Something that serves an ancillary function, such as an easel for a painter.

  2. An auxiliary.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Latin ancillāris (“ancillary; relating to female slaves”), from ancilla (“slave-woman”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.