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

basic

fundamental

main

elementary

original

initial

principal

chief

beginning

primitive

major

prime

essential

elemental

basal

cardinal

capital

rudimentary

primary winding

primal

primordial

introductory

preliminary

foremost

𐐹𐑉𐐴𐑋𐐯𐑉𐐨

primary feather

primary quill

pristine

incipient

primary election

leading

ordinary

primary coil

former

central

actual

true

initiatory

underlying

big

supreme

important

preparatory

paramount

master

foundation

first-hand

lower

linear

Translations

primario

1st

primaire

principal

primär

principal

primario

primário

fondamental

primair

primari

principal

premier

1st

ursprünglich

essentiel

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.