Word.ws English Dictionary

originary

originary adjective: pertaining to or being the origin of something.

Adjective

originary (comparative more originary, superlative most originary)

  1. (rare) Pertaining to or being the origin of something.
    • The Big Bang was the originary explosion of the universe.
  2. (rare) Primitive, original.
    • Christians believe human beings to have been sinless in their originary state.
    • My only aim will be to trace the dislocating work of the two conditions that ensue, namely, the principial condition over which the foundation presides and the ground as the originary condition.2003, Reiner Schürmann, Broken Hegemonies, page 274
  3. (obsolete, often) Having its origin (in); originating (from).
    • This dish is originary of northern Asia.

Noun

originary (plural originaries)

  1. (obsolete) Native (a person born in a particular geographic place, such as a country or region)

Forms of originary

Adjective
comparativemore originary
superlativemost originary
Noun
pluraloriginaries

Origin of originary

From the Latin orīginārius.

Words formed from originary

Questions about originary

What does originary mean?
Originary means pertaining to or being the origin of something.
What part of speech is originary?
Originary can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near originary in the dictionary

  1. originals
  2. originant
  3. originaries
  4. originarily
  5. originariness
  6. originary
  7. originate
  8. originated
  9. originates
  10. originatest
  11. originateth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: originary (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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