Noun: auxiliary
| Singular | auxiliary |
| Plural | auxiliaries |
Sample Sentences
-
Auxiliaries and ancillaries are comprehensive, and include a Westinghouse motor-driven recriprocating compressor used for locomotive braking and general service air, two rotary exhauster sets for train brakes when hauling passenger or fitted freight trains, and an oil-fired train heating boiler. [1950 November, “Mixed-Traffic Diesel-Electric Locomotives for Ireland”, in Railway Magazine, page 781:]
-
A drive to exploit the Highlands as a winter sports area, with all the necessary auxiliaries, such as chair lifts in the Cairngorms, shows increasing promise, […]. [1962 September, G. Freeman Allen, “The New Look in Scotland's Northern Division—1”, in Modern Railways, page 163:]
-
Summer “felt betrayed” that a close friend had used AI as “an auxiliary” to talk to her. [2025 June 30, Adrienne Matei, “‘Hey man, I’m so sorry for your loss’: should you use AI to text?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:]
-
The three traditionally recognized Non-modal Auxiliaries are the per-
-
fective Auxiliary have, the progressive Auxiliary be, and the passive Auxiliary
-
be. Perfective have is so-called because it marks the completion (hence, perfec-
-
tion) of an action; it is followed by a VP headed by a perfective -n participle, as
-
in:
-
(121) The referee has [_(VP) shown him the red card] [1988, Andrew Radford, Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 151:]
Nouns inflected like auxiliary
clitoridectomy,
royal jelly,
whoopsy,
surrogacy,
urinary,
rastrography,
renoscopy,
sourtop blueberry,
forcible entry,
superficiary,
lipidosity,
potability,
phonography,
hyperproperty,
greenery,
conjugality,
ring singularity,
Brittany,
ignobility,
obscurity, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Latin auxiliārius (“assistant, ally”), equiv. to auxiliāris (“helping, aiding”), from auxilium (“help, aid”), from augēre (“to increase”). See: Latin Nouns '
auxiliārius'.
Verbs referencing "auxiliary"
Spanish Nouns
auxiliar.