primary

Meaning

Adj

1. First or earliest in a group or series.
2. Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
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.
6. Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.

Noun

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.
2. The first year of grade school.
3. A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
4. The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
5. A primary school.
6. Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
7. A primary colour.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. The primary site of a disease; the original location or source of the disease.
11. A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.

Verb

1. (US, intransitive, transitive) 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.
2. (US, intransitive, transitive) To take part in a primary election.

Synonyms

first

1st

main

basic

fundamental

original

elementary

initial

principal

chief

beginning

primitive

major

elemental

essential

prime

preliminary

capital

primary winding

primordial

rudimentary

introductory

primal

cardinal

basal

𐐹𐑉𐐴𐑋𐐯𐑉𐐨

leading

foremost

ordinary

incipient

primary coil

primary feather

primary quill

primary election

pristine

master

central

actual

initiatory

underlying

true

important

paramount

big

supreme

former

preparatory

raw

real

regular

responsible

rough

rudimental

run-of-the-mill

serious

staple

supporting

traditional

vanilla

veritable

virtual

weighty

wise

working

first order

first step

P

P

primary colour

one grade

first-order

preliminary contest

protopathic

elementary item

pri

primary component

primary planet

aBC

primary body

primary star

elemental term

originative

aboriginal

archetypal

authoritative

basis

bottom

conspicuous

constitutive

customary

deep

difficult

direct

fiducial

first-class

first-hand

foundation

grassroots

grave

🪦

great

high

idiopathic

inceptive

indigenous

initially

large

linear

lower

mainline

momentous

most significant

native

no-frills

nomination

old

🧓

originally

abecedarian

overriding

pivotal

preemptive

preliminary election

primate

prime cost

primeval

profound

prominent

proper

Translations

primario

1st

primaire

principal

primär

principal

primair

fondamental

premier

1st

essentiel

primero

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpɹaɪməɹi/

Etymology

Cognate with English: -

Cognate with French: primaire

In summary

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.

Sentences

The primary election will be held in June .

The primary coil has fifty turns .

He finished a distant third in the primary , behind Al Loveland and Nelson Kraschel.