primary

Plural: primaries

Noun

• A preliminary election where voters choose candidates for a general election.
• a preliminary election where delegates or nominees are chosen
• one of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing
• (astronomy) a celestial body (especially a star) relative to other objects in orbit around it
• coil forming the part of an electrical circuit such that changing current in it induces a current in a neighboring circuit
  • "current through the primary coil induces current in the secondary coil"
• A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party, or the first round of a two-round election.
• 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.
• Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
• A primary colour.
• 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.
• A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.

Adjective

• of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondary
  • "primary goals"
  • "a primary effect"
  • "primary sources"
  • "a primary interest"

Adjective Satellite

• not derived from or reducible to something else; basic
  • "a primary instinct"
• most important element
  • "policemen were primary targets"
• of or being the essential or basic part
• of primary importance

Adj

• First or earliest in a group or series.
• Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
• Earliest formed; fundamental.
• 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.

Verb

• 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.
• To take part in a primary election.

Examples

• Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.
• most common primaries
• Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.
• This opening word is just a primary play; the real strategy begins next turn.
• unknown primary

Synonyms

basal, chief, elemental, elementary, main, master, primary coil, primary election, primary feather, primary quill, primary winding, principal

Antonyms

secondary

Related Words

first, primus inter pares

Anagrams of primary