Inherited from Middle English -arie, a back-formation from Latin and French-borrowed adjectives ending respectively in -ārius and -aire (more rarely from Latin adjectives in -āris: see exemplary and lapidary). Doublet of -ar, -eer, -ier, and -yer; see also the related -arian.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ə.ɹi/, /ɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ə.ɹi/, /ɛɹ.i/

-ary

1. Of or pertaining to. Adjectival suffix appended to various words, often nouns, to produce an adjective form. Often added to words of Latin origin, but used with other words also.

   Synonyms: -al, -ar, -ese, -ic, -id, -ish, -like, -oid, -ory, -ous, -y

   ‎devolution + ‎-ary → ‎devolutionary

2. (nonproductive) Ending of some substantives borrowed or inherited from Latin and French.

   dictionary, plenipotentiary

3. (mathematics) Having the specified arity.

   Synonym: -adic

   • 1927, A. D. Campbell, “The discriminant of the m-ary quadratic in the Galois fields of order 2ⁿ”, in Annals of Mathematics, Second Series 29:1-4:
   • 2007, Philippe Leroux, “A simple symmetry generating operads related to rooted planar m-ary trees and polygonal numbers”, in Journal of Integer Sequences, 10:4:

• Appendix:English arities and adicities

• Ayr, RYA, Ray, ayr, ra'y, ray, rya, yar, γ ray, γ-ray