sekundæren

Sekundären is not a stand-alone term in German; it is the declined form of the adjective sekundär used before plural nouns. It conveys the sense of "secondary" or "not primary" and is commonly employed to describe secondary status, order, or nature in a range of contexts.

In daily and academic language, it appears in phrases such as die sekundären Auswirkungen (secondary effects), die sekundären Quellen (secondary sources), and die sekundären Daten (secondary data). The term helps distinguish primary material or primary data from subsequent, derived, or less direct materials, for example in Sekundärliteratur (secondary literature) or Sekundärkunde/ Sekundärforschung (secondary research).

Grammatical note: sekundär is declined as sekundären in the plural after definite articles, e.g., die sekundären Quellen; mit den sekundären Ergebnissen. Without a determiner, the form is sekundäre Daten. The usage pattern follows standard German adjective declension and varies with case and determiner.

Origin and scope: Sekundär derives from Latin secundarius via German and is widely used in science, humanities, and everyday language to indicate something that follows or is of secondary importance. Related terms include primär (primary), Sekundärliteratur (secondary literature), and Sekundärdaten (secondary data), which help distinguish levels of source material and emphasis within a discussion.