sec
sec Lexical Profile
sec Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A second; a very brief moment or short period of time (used informally or as a written abbreviation).
"Wait just a sec while I grab my coat and keys from the hallway."
An abbreviation for secant, the trigonometric function equal to the reciprocal of the cosine of an angle.
"On the trigonometry exam, students were asked to graph the function sec(x) over a single period."
A dry wine or sparkling champagne.
"She preferred a chilled glass of French sec over the sweeter dessert wines offered after dinner."
• adjective
Not sweet; dry, or having a relatively low sugar content (used especially of wine and champagne).
"The sommelier recommended a crisp, sec sparkling wine to balance the richness of the appetizer."
• Rhymes for sec
Word Origin & Etymology
As a temporal noun, it is a mid-19th-century colloquial clipping of "second"; as an oenological adjective meaning "dry," it is borrowed directly from French "sec," which derives from the Latin "siccus" (dry). In trigonometry, it serves as the standard mathematical abbreviation for "secant."