quaternary vs quaternion

quaternary

noun
  • A quaternary compound. 

  • The Quaternary period or the system of deposits laid down during it. 

adj
  • Relating to or in number base four 

  • Of fourth rank or order 

  • Of a mathematical expression containing e.g. x⁴ 

  • quaternary ammonium 

  • composed of four elements 

quaternion

noun
  • A type of four-dimensional hypercomplex number consisting of a real part and three imaginary parts (real multiples of distinct, independent square roots of −1 denoted by i, j and k); commonly used in vector mathematics and as an alternative to matrix algebra in calculating the rotation of three-dimensional objects. 

  • A group or set of four people or things. 

  • A word of four syllables. 

How often have the words quaternary and quaternion occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )