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ENGLISH DICTIONARY

Primary

/ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹi/ · adjective

Meaning

First or earliest in a group or series..

Definitions by Sense

  1. First or earliest in a group or series.
  2. Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
  3. (geology) Earliest formed; fundamental.
  4. (chemistry) Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
  5. (medicine) Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.
  6. (medicine) Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.
  7. (political science) A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party, or the first round of a two-round election.
  8. The first year of grade school.

Example Sentences

Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.
, Book II, Chapter VIII These I call original, or primary, qualities of body.
the church of Christ, in its primary institution
Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.
In recent primaries, for example, nearly 4% of absentees were rejected in Philadelphia; 8% in Kentucky; and 20% in parts of New York City.
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.
Excellence in Cities offers a further development of this approach, whereby secondary schools operate with small clusters of primaries as mini-EAZs.
`Good Lord, look at that swiftlet, it's got two primaries missing from its left wing!'

Synonyms for primary

essentialdirectprimitiveparticularsimpleoriginalprincipalbasalbasicspecialelementarymainunderivedbeginningfirsthandfirst-stringprimary electionprimary coilprimary windingprimary quill

Antonyms for primary

secondary

Related Words

principaloriginalmainimportantelementarybasicbasalprimitiveessentialparticularspecialbeginningfirsthanddirectchiefprimary electionabecedariansimpleunderivedfirst-string

Word Forms

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

Practice and Learn More

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does primary mean?

Primary means First or earliest in a group or series..

What is a synonym for primary?

Common synonyms include essential, direct, primitive, particular.

What is the opposite of primary?

Possible antonyms include secondary.

How do you use primary in a sentence?

Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.