English Explanatory Dictionary

primary

English dictionary entry

Meanings

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. 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. To take part in a primary election.

Pronunciation

/ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹi/ prīʹmĕr-ē /ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹ.i/ prīʹmə-rē /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹi/ En-us-primary.ogg /ˈpɹɑe.m(ə.)ɹiː/ /ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹiː/ [ˈpɹɑe̯.mə.ɹiː] /ˈpɹaɪm.ɹiː/ [ˈpɹɑe̯m.ɹiː]

Word forms

primary more primary most primary primaries primarying primaried

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.

Related words

first primus inter pares

Derived words

circumprimary coprimary megaprimary nonprimary postprimary preprimary pre-primary primarily primariness primary accent primary alcohol primary amine primary amoebic meningoencephalitis primary bedroom primary care primary cell wall primary cilium primary color primary colour primary data primary education primary energy primary explosive primary fire primary forest primary goods primary healthcare primary hypothermia primary ideal primary immunodeficiency primary industry primary key primary legislation primary life support system primary market primary memory primary metabolite primary myelofibrosis primary offense primary phosphine primary planet primary poverty primary producer primary production primary radar primary rate interface primary reinforcement primary research primary residence primary school primary sector primary source primary storage primary stress primary structure primary surveillance radar primary tense primary time primary time standard primary tooth
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