auxiliary

auxiliary, subsidiary, accessory, contributory, subservient, ancillary, adjuvant mean supplying aid or support.

Auxiliary may imply subordinate rank or position

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an auxiliary organization

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an auxiliary bishop

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the conclusion that the humanistic point of view is auxiliary to and dependent upon the religious point of view— T. S. Eliot

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It often suggests something kept in reserve

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an auxiliary motor in a sailboat

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Subsidiary stresses subordinate or inferior status or capacity, often to the obscuring or loss of the notion of supplying aid

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subsidiary streams

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a subsidiary company controlled by another company that holds a majority of the shares of its stock

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Accessory so strongly stresses association or accompaniment that the notion of assistance or support is often obscured or lost; thus, an accessory mineral is one present in a rock but not an essential constituent; a person accessory to a crime (as the hirer of an assassin or a receiver of stolen goods) need not actively participate in its commission (see also accessory n under CONFEDERATE).

Contributory stresses the assistance rather than the subordinate status of the assistant and usually implies the effecting of an end or result

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resentment against the unjust tax was one of the contributory causes of the revolt

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contributory negligence on the part of a person suffering an injury may impair his right to recover damages

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Subservient usually stresses the subordinate nature of the assistance

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a catastrophe to which every incident should be subservient— Crabbe

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It may stress the importance or usefulness of the end it serves and the nature of its motive (as commendable self-subordination or a sense of order and due relation)

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he has uniformly made his talents subservient to the best interests of humanity— Coleridge

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those features of a work of art which by themselves would be unattractive or repulsive, like an “ugly” face, but in the work are subservient to the total effect and may even heighten its beauty— Alexander

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Ancillary more than the other terms stresses the intimacy of the assistance

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some practice in the deft use of words, with its correspondent defining of thought, may well be ancillary even to the study of natural science— Quiller-Couch

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Adjuvant differs from auxiliary, its closest synonym, in attributing greater importance, more noticeable effectiveness, or a more definite influence to the thing so qualified; an adjuvant ingredient in a prescription often modifies the action of the major ingredient so as to make it effective

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asceticism is merely an adjuvant discipline to . . . pathological forms of mysticism— Ellis

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Analogous words: *subordinate, secondary, tributary: supporting, upholding, backing (see SUPPORT vb): helping, aiding, assisting (see HELP vb): supplementary, complementary (see corresponding nouns at COMPLEMENT)