Word.ws English Dictionary

prelim

UK/ˈpriːlɪm/US/priˈlɪm/

prelim adjective: preliminary. Also the clipping of preliminary examination.

Adjective

prelim (not comparable)

  1. (informal) Preliminary.

Noun

prelim (plural prelims)

  1. (informal) Something preliminary, such as a trial, report, race, etc.
  2. (in plural) The preliminary front matter of a book; all content preceding the main text or work itself.

Also used as

prelim is also the clipping of preliminary examination.

Forms of prelim

pluralprelims

Plural of prelim: prelims

Origin of prelim

Clipping of preliminary. Sense 2 ("clipping of preliminary examination") was originally Oxford University slang, now in common use.

Questions about prelim

What does prelim mean?
Prelim means preliminary.
What part of speech is prelim?
Prelim can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce prelim?
Prelim is pronounced /ˈpriːlɪm/ (UK).

Words near prelim in the dictionary

  1. preligamentous
  2. prelight
  3. prelighted
  4. prelighting
  5. prelights
  6. prelim
  7. prelimbic
  8. preliminal
  9. preliminaries
  10. preliminarily
  11. preliminarily enjoin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prelim (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “prelim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prelim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.