the musical interval between one note and another three notes away from it; "a simple harmony written in major thirds"
following the second position in an ordering or series; "a distant third"; "he answered the first question willingly, the second reluctantly, and the third with resentment"
coming next after the second and just before the fourth in position
in the third place; "third we must consider unemployment"
the musical interval between one note and another four notes away from it
following the third position; number four in a countable series
coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude; "the quaternary period of geologic time extends from the end of the tertiary period to the present"
(astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction
any celestial body (other than comets or satellites) that revolves around a star
the area around the eastern Mediterranean; from Turkey to northern Africa and eastward to Iran; the site of such ancient civilizations as Phoenicia and Babylon and Egypt and the birthplace of Judaism and Christianity and Islam; had continuous economic and political turmoil in the 20th century; "the Middle East is the cradle of Western civilization"