primary
UK/ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹi//ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹ.i/
primary adjective: first or earliest in a group or series.
Adjective
primary (comparative more primary, superlative most primary)
- First or earliest in a group or series.
- Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.
- the church of Christ, in its primary institution1659, John Pearson, Exposition of the Creed
- 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
primary (plural 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.2020 September 14, Richard H. Pildes, “The three words that can avert an election nightmare”, in CNN
- Before Americans pick a president in November, they get to pick the candidates in a series of primaries and caucuses. […] Biden could still win New Hampshire’s primary through a write-in campaign, but the first sanctioned Democratic contest is in South Carolina in February.2024 January 22, Zachary B. Wolf, “2024 US presidential primaries, explained”, in CNN
- 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.2001, David Woods, Martyn Cribb, Effective LEAs and school improvement
- 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!'2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 115
- A primary colour.
- By adding and subtracting the three primaries, cyan, yellow, and magenta are produced. These are called subtractive primaries.2003, Julie A Jacko, Andrew Sears, The human-computer interaction handbook
- 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
- most common primaries
- A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.
Verb
primary (third-person singular simple present primaries, present participle primarying, simple past and past participle 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."1974, Stan Steiner, The Islands: the Worlds of the Puerto Ricans, page 191
- What political facts of life underpin the hopes and dreams of democratic politicians who would take on the awesome task of “primarying” a two-term incumbent governor1980, Empire State Report, volumes 6-7, page 303
- To take part in a primary election.
- Both were worried that Bailey would break some of their delegate commitments to keep them from primarying.1981, Joseph I. Lieberman, The Legacy: Connecticut Politics, 1930-1980, page 171
- First, I'd challenge my opponent for the convention nomination. If I didn't prevail at the convention, that would be my answer. I wouldn't “primary” him—meaning, I wouldn't force a statewide primary election if he and I were the only two candidates in the field.2011, Christine O'Donnell, Troublemaker: Let's Do What It Takes to Make America Great Again, page 169
primary meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
primary in Hindi
- first in a group or series
- प्रथम pratham, प्राथमिक prāthmik
- that which is placed ahead of others
- प्राथमिक prāthmik, प्रथम pratham
primary in Tamil
- தொடக்க நிலை, முதன்மையான, தலையாய, பிரதானமான
primary in Marathi
- primary, foremost, most important
- प्राथमिक prāthamik
primary in Urdu
- اصلی, ابتدائی, پہلا, قبل
More languagesFewer languages
- primary in Bengali
- মূল mul, মৌলিক mōulik
- primary in Telugu
- ప్రాథమికము prāthamikamu
- primary in Malayalam
- ഏറ്റവും പ്രധാനപ്പെട്ട, ആദ്യത്തേതായ, പ്രാഥമികം
- primary in Kannada
- ಪ್ರಾಥಮಿಕ prāthamika
- primary in Punjabi
- ਪਹਿਲਾ pahilā
- primary in Gujarati
- પ્રાથમિક, પ્રાઈમરી
- primary in Odia
- ଅଗୌଣ agauṇa
- primary in Assamese
- আগনি agoni, মৌলিক moulik, প্ৰাথমিক prathomik
- primary in Nepali
- प्राथमिक
- primary in Tagalog
- pangunahin
- primary in Arabic
- أَوَّلِيّ ʔawwaliyy
- primary in Indonesian
- primer, pokok
- primary in Persian
- نخستین, ابتدایی
- primary in Vietnamese
- sơ cấp, sơ bộ, sơ đẳng, chủ yếu
Examples of primary in a sentence
- Each of the past few election cycles has featured at least one instance of “primarying,” a challenge to an incumbent on the grounds that he or she is not sufficiently partisan.2014, Sanford L. Jacobs, The Little Black Book of Political Wisdom:
- The ad calls for loyal Tea Party members to step forward and run against all eighty-seven of the traitors in order to primary them.2014, Uncle Sam, How Fox News KO'd The Republican Party:
- These instances of “primarying,” according to many, make Congress more partisan and extreme.2014, Robert G. Boatright, Congressional Primary Elections, page 8:
- According to Boatright, 774 instances of challengers “primarying” sitting House incumbents occurred between 1970 and 2010.2017, Aaron S. King, Unfolding Ambition in Senate Primary Elections, page 19:
Forms of primary
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more primary |
| superlative | most primary |
| Noun | |
| plural | primaries |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | primaries |
| present participle | primarying |
| past participle | primaried |
| past | primaried |
Origin of primary
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.
Words formed from primary
- circumprimary
- coprimary
- megaprimary
- nonprimary
- postprimary
- preprimary
- pre-primary
- primarily
- primariness
- primary accent
- primary adrenal insufficiency
- 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 polycythemia
- 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
Phrases with primary
- dual primary
- primary keys
- primary work
- Acela primary
- false primary
- money primary
- primary cilia
- primary teeth
- primary times
- primary tooth
- primary works
- primary world
48 more phrasesFewer phrases
- titan primary
- direct primary
- jungle primary
- primary amines
- primary colors
- primary ideals
- primary tenses
- primary worlds
- primary accents
- primary colours
- primary markets
- primary planets
- primary schools
- primary sectors
- primary sources
- primary valence
- primary alcohols
- primary bedrooms
- primary election
- primary energies
- primary offenses
- primary storages
- primary stresses
- primary valences
- clown-car primary
- firehouse primary
- invisible primary
- primary elections
- primary intention
- primary producers
- primary cell walls
- primary explosives
- primary industries
- primary phosphines
- primary residences
- primary structures
- primary transcript
- primary transcripts
- titan primary school
- primary myelofibroses
- primary time standard
- titan primary schools
- primary reinforcements
- primary time standards
- primary rate interfaces
- primary immunodeficiencies
- primary life support systems
- primary adrenal insufficiencies
Questions about primary
- What does primary mean?
- Primary means first or earliest in a group or series.
- What is primary in Hindi?
- Primary in Hindi is प्रथम (pratham), प्राथमिक (prāthmik). See Primary meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use primary in a sentence?
- Each of the past few election cycles has featured at least one instance of “primarying,” a challenge to an incumbent on the grounds that he or she is not sufficiently partisan.
- What part of speech is primary?
- Primary can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce primary?
- Primary is pronounced /ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹi/ (UK).
Words near primary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: primary (page history and authors); primary (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); प्राथमिक (Marathi) (page history and authors); primary (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); মূল (Bengali) (page history and authors); ప్రాథమికము (Telugu) (page history and authors); primary (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಪ್ರಾಥಮಿಕ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਪਹਿਲਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); primary (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଅଗୌଣ (Odia) (page history and authors); primary (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-primary.ogg.
Cite this entry: “primary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/primary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.