adjective / noun
auxiliary
awg-ZIL-ee-air-ee/ɔːɡˈzɪliəri/
Something additional that provides supporting help.
The auxiliary wheels help keep the child's bicycle upright.
Etymology
Built on auxilium, “aid,” the adjective originally meant helpful or assisting. That supporting role led to the sense “additional” or “subsidiary”: something that helps rather than serves as the main resource.
In context
swa does not need the use of contrast medium and can be added as an auxiliary sequence in routine stroke protocol without much increase in the scan time
More examples
- An auxiliary generator supplies power during an outage.
- The verb have serves as an auxiliary in that sentence.
- Volunteers worked as auxiliaries alongside the regular staff.
Forms
auxiliary · auxiliaries
Similar words
- supplementary
- Emphasizes adding something extra rather than providing active support.
- secondary
- Indicates a lower rank or importance without necessarily helping.