Adjective

(en adjective)

Acting as a complement.

*

Using the terminology we intro-
duced earlier, we might then say that black and white squares are in comple-
mentary distribution on a chess-board. By this we mean two things: firstly,
black squares and white squares occupy different positions on the board: and
secondly, the black and white squares complement each other in the sense that
the black squares together with the white squares comprise the total set of 64
squares found on the board (i.e. there is no square on the board which is not
either black or white).

(genetics) Of the specific pairings of the bases in DNA and RNA.

(physics) Pertaining to pairs of properties in quantum mechanics that are inversely related to each other, such as speed and position, or energy and time. (See also Heisenberg uncertainty principle.)

Adjective

(en adjective)

Auxiliary or supplemental.

* (John Florio) (1553-1625)

chief ruler and principal head everywhere, not suffragant and subsidiary

* (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)

They constituted a useful subsidiary testimony of another state of existence.

Secondary or subordinate.

*{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild

, title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=5 , passage=By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.}}

Of, or relating to a subsidy.

* (1805-1875)

George the Second relied on his subsidiary treaties.