ancillary

If you use the adjective ancillary to describe your position you are subordinate or supporting something or someone else.

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  • Pronunciation: /'ænsəlɛri/
  • English description: furnishing added support
  • Synonyms: accessory
  • Chinese Translation:  副的(fu4 de)
  • Spanish Translation: auxiliar
  • ORIGIN: The adjective ancillary originally meant "relating to maidservants" from the Latin, but the element of a female servant has fallen away and now the word merely refers to a position as helpful or subordinate. An example of how something in medicine can be ancillary is after you have surgery you may also take a drug to aid healing — the drug would be considered ancillary to the surgery. One could also argue that in the United States the vice-president takes an ancillary role to the president.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

  • Not something ancillary or secondary to the immutable fact of the guns themselves.
  • But libraries also offer an array of other ancillary information services—and, critically, assistance to help visitors make sense of them.

*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary.com