primary
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primary
- /ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹi/ UK
- /ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹ.i/ Canada, US
- /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹi/ Canada, US
- /ˈpɹɑe.m(ə.)ɹiː/ Australia
- /ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹiː/ New Zealand
- [ˈpɹɑe̯.mə.ɹiː] New Zealand
- /ˈpɹaɪm.ɹiː/ New Zealand
- [ˈpɹɑe̯m.ɹiː] New Zealand
Rhymes with -aɪməɹi, -aɪmɛɹi
Where it comes from
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.
adjective more primary · most primary
- First or earliest in a group or series. Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.
- Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
- Earliest formed; fundamental. Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.
- Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
- Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.
- Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.
noun primaries
- 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.
- The first year of grade school.
- A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
- The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
- 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.
- 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!'
- A primary colour. By adding and subtracting the three primaries, cyan, yellow, and magenta are produced. These are called subtractive primaries.
- 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.
- 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.
- The primary site of a disease; the original location or source of the disease. unknown primary
- A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.
verb primaries · primarying · primaried
- 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. In the New England town where he ran a “couple of night clubs” . he was “primarying the mayor."
- To take part in a primary election. Both were worried that Bailey would break some of their delegate commitments to keep them from primarying.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: principal, original, main, important, elementary, basic, basal, primitive, essential, particular, special, beginning, firsthand, direct, chief, primary election
Translations
Every language
adj first in a group or series
| Español | primario |
|---|---|
| हिन्दी | प्रथम pratham, प्राथमिक prāthmik |
| Português | primário, primária, primários, primárias |
| Français | primaire |
| Ελληνικά | πρωτογενής protogenís, πρωτοβάθμιος protováthmios |
| Română | primar |
| Русский | перви́чный pervíčnyj |
| Tiếng Việt | sơ cấp, sơ bộ, sơ đẳng |
adj that which is placed ahead of others
| Español | primario |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 본래의 bollae'ui |
| 日本語 | 最初の saisho no |
| 中文 | 第一的 dìyī de, 最初 zuìchū |
| हिन्दी | प्राथमिक prāthmik, प्रथम pratham |
| Português | primário |
| Français | prioritaire |
| Deutsch | primär |
| Italiano | primario |
| Русский | перви́чный pervíčnyj |
| Tiếng Việt | chủ yếu, chính, chính yếu, bậc nhất |
| العربية | أَوَّلِيّ ʔawwaliyy |
noun preliminary election
| Español | primarias |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Vorwahl |
| Română | alegeri primare, alegeri preliminare |
| Tiếng Việt | (cuộc) bầu cử sơ bộ |
noun base or fundamental component
| Español | básico |
|---|
noun ornithology: flight feather
| Deutsch | Handschwinge |
|---|
Talk about this word "primary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/primary. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. primary. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/primary "primary." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/primary.Cite this
@misc{primary_2026,
title = {primary},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/primary},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
