Zweitgradige

Zweitgradige is a German adjective meaning "second-degree" or "second-order," formed from zweitgrad (second degree) with the adjectival suffix -ig. It denotes that something belongs to the second level of a qualitative scale, severity, or complexity. It appears mainly in medical, technical, or scientific language and is typically used attributively before a noun. For instance: zweitgradige Verbrennung (second-degree burn), zweitgradige Schäden (second-degree damages), or zweitgradige Veränderungen (secondary changes). The form inflects according to gender, number, and case: eine zweitgradige Verletzung, zwei zweitgradige Verletzungen, zweitgradigen Verletzungen, and so on. The term is less common in everyday speech but widely recognized in clinical and technical contexts.

In medicine, zweitgradig is used to describe burn injuries that extend through the epidermis into the dermis, typically causing pain, redness, and blistering. In mathematics and related fields, the standard term for a second-degree relationship or equation is usually quadratisch oder Gleichung zweiten Grades; the phrase zweitgradige Gleichung may appear in older texts or informal materials but is less common in contemporary usage.

Etymology: the word derives from zwei (two) and Grad (degree) with the adjectival suffix -ig, signaling a property corresponding to the second level. Related terms include Z uweitgrad and Zweitgrad, which appear in compound forms or as nouns in specific technical contexts.