primary
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɹaɪməɹi/
enpr: prīʹmĕr-ē
ipa: /ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹi/
enpr: prīʹmə-rē
ipa: /ˈpɹaɪməɹi/
ipa: /ˈpɹaɪm(ə)ɹiː/
rhymes: -aɪməɹi
rhymes: -aɪmɛɹi
Forms: form: primaries
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: In recent primaries, for example, nearly 4% of absentees were rejected in Philadelphia; 8% in Kentucky; and 20% in parts of New York City.
ref: 2020 September 14, Richard H. Pildes, “The three words that can avert an election nightmare”, in CNN:
text: 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.
ref: 2024 January 22, Zachary B. Wolf, “2024 US presidential primaries, explained”, in CNN:
topics: political-science
social-sciences
glosses: A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party, or the first round of a two-round election.
glosses: The first year of grade school.
glosses: A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
glosses: The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
examples: text: Excellence in Cities offers a further development of this approach, whereby secondary schools operate with small clusters of primaries as mini-EAZs.
ref: 2001, David Woods, Martyn Cribb, Effective LEAs and school improvement:
glosses: A primary school.
examples: text: `Good Lord, look at that swiftlet, it's got two primaries missing from its left wing!'
ref: 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 115:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
examples: text: By adding and subtracting the three primaries, cyan, yellow, and magenta are produced. These are called subtractive primaries.
ref: 2003, Julie A Jacko, Andrew Sears, The human-computer interaction handbook:
glosses: A primary colour.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: 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.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: 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.
examples: text: unknown primary
text: most common primaries
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The primary site of a disease; the original location or source of the disease.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.
Derived terms: Acela primary
clown-car primary
direct primary
dual primary
false primary
firehouse primary
invisible primary
jungle primary
money primary