Primary
adj, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party, or the first round of a two-round election.
"In recent primaries, for example, nearly 4% of absentees were rejected in Philadelphia; 8% in Kentucky; and 20% in parts of New York City."
- 2 a preliminary election where delegates or nominees are chosen wordnet
- 3 The first year of grade school.
- 4 one of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing wordnet
- 5 A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
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- 6 coil forming the part of an electrical circuit such that changing current in it induces a current in a neighboring circuit wordnet
- 7 The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
- 8 (astronomy) a celestial body (especially a star) relative to other objects in orbit around it wordnet
- 9 A primary school.
"Excellence in Cities offers a further development of this approach, whereby secondary schools operate with small clusters of primaries as mini-EAZs."
- 10 Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
"`Good Lord, look at that swiftlet, it's got two primaries missing from its left wing!'"
- 11 A primary colour.
"By adding and subtracting the three primaries, cyan, yellow, and magenta are produced. These are called subtractive primaries."
- 12 The first stage of a thermonuclear weapon, which sets off a fission explosion to help trigger a fusion reaction in the weapon's secondary stage.
- 13 A radar return from an aircraft (or other object) produced solely by the reflection of the radar beam from the aircraft's skin, without additional information from the aircraft's transponder.
- 14 The primary site of a disease; the original location or source of the disease.
"unknown primary"
- 15 A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.
- 1 To challenge (an incumbent sitting politician) for their political party's nomination to run for re-election, through running a challenger campaign in a primary election, especially one that is more ideologically extreme. US, intransitive, transitive
"In the New England town where he ran a “couple of night clubs” . he was “primarying the mayor.""
- 2 To take part in a primary election. US, intransitive, transitive
"Both were worried that Bailey would break some of their delegate commitments to keep them from primarying."
- 1 First or earliest in a group or series.
"Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school."
- 2 Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
"Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock."
- 3 Earliest formed; fundamental.
- 4 Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
- 5 Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.
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- 6 Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.
- 1 not derived from or reducible to something else; basic wordnet
- 2 most important element wordnet
- 3 of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondary wordnet
- 4 of or being the essential or basic part wordnet
Example
More examples"The primary aim of science is to find truth, new truth."
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin prīmārius (“of the first (rank); chief, principal; excellent”), from prīmus (first; whence the English adjective prime) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French primaire, primer, and premier. Doublet of premier.