secondary quality

noun Epistemology.

one of the qualities attributed by the mind to an object perceived, such as color, temperature, or taste.

Compare primary quality.

Origin of secondary quality

First recorded in 1690–1700

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for secondary qualities

secondary qualities

pl n

(in empiricist philosophy) those properties of objects that are explained in terms of the primary properties of their parts, such as heat in terms of the motion of molecules

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