quinary
Americanadjective
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pertaining to or consisting of five.
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arranged in fives.
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of, relating to, or noting a numerical system based on the number 5.
noun
adjective
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consisting of fives or by fives
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fifth in a series
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(of a number system) having a base of five
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of quinary
1595–1605; < Latin quīnārius, equivalent to quīn ( ī ) five each + -ārius -ary
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Numbers like seven and 31 belonged to all of these systems, quinary, decimal, and vigesimal alike.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Modern mathematicians would say that Gog, the wolf carver, used a five-based or quinary counting system.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Even in the South American binary counting schemes, linguists see the beginnings of a quinary system.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
Up to this point the Greenlander's scale is almost purely quinary.
From The Number Concept Its Origin and Development by Conant, Levi Leonard
Such a scale is the one obtained from the Betoya language, already mentioned in Chapter III., where the formation of the numerals is purely quinary, as the following indicate:227 5. teente = 1 hand.
From The Number Concept Its Origin and Development by Conant, Levi Leonard
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
