PRIMARY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does primary mean? 

• PRIMARY (noun)
  The noun PRIMARY has 4 senses:

1. a preliminary election where delegates or nominees are chosen

2. one of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing

3. (astronomy) a celestial body (especially a star) relative to other objects in orbit around it

4. coil forming the part of an electrical circuit such that changing current in it induces a current in a neighboring circuit

  Familiarity information: PRIMARY used as a noun is uncommon.

• PRIMARY (adjective)
  The adjective PRIMARY has 4 senses:

1. of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondary

2. not derived from or reducible to something else; basic

3. most important element

4. of or being the essential or basic part

  Familiarity information: PRIMARY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRIMARY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A preliminary election where delegates or nominees are chosen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

primary; primary election

Hypernyms ("primary" is a kind of...):

election (a vote to select the winner of a position or political office)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "primary"):

direct primary (a primary where voters directly select the candidates who will run for office)

Sense 2

Meaning:

One of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

primary; primary feather; primary quill

Hypernyms ("primary" is a kind of...):

flight feather; pinion; quill; quill feather (any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(astronomy) a celestial body (especially a star) relative to other objects in orbit around it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("primary" is a kind of...):

celestial body; heavenly body (natural objects visible in the sky)

Domain category:

astronomy; uranology (the branch of physics that studies celestial bodies and the universe as a whole)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Coil forming the part of an electrical circuit such that changing current in it induces a current in a neighboring circuit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

primary; primary coil; primary winding

Context example:

current through the primary coil induces current in the secondary coil

Hypernyms ("primary" is a kind of...):

coil (reactor consisting of a spiral of insulated wire that introduces inductance into a circuit)

Holonyms ("primary" is a part of...):

transformer (an electrical device by which alternating current of one voltage is changed to another voltage)

• PRIMARY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondary

Context example:

a primary interest

Similar:

particular; special (first and most important)

original ((of e.g. information) not secondhand or by way of something intermediary)

capital (of primary importance)

direct (being an immediate result or consequence)

firsthand (received directly from a source)

first-string (being a regular member of a team)

Also:

essential (basic and fundamental)

original (being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of)

first (preceding all others in time or space or degree)

Antonym:

secondary (being of second rank or importance or value; not direct or immediate)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not derived from or reducible to something else; basic

Context example:

a primary instinct

Similar:

underived (not derived; primary or simple)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Most important element

Synonyms:

chief; main; master; primary; principal

Context example:

a master switch

Similar:

important; of import (of great significance or value)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Of or being the essential or basic part

Synonyms:

basal; elemental; elementary; primary

Context example:

a basal reader

Similar:

basic (pertaining to or constituting a base or basis)

 Context examples 

MAVEN then will begin its one Earth-year primary mission, taking measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars' upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind.

(Mars Mission Spacecraft Enters Orbit around Red Planet, NASA)

More than 2000 London primary schoolchildren, from a range of ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, were included in the study, which looked at their physical activity levels, body composition and socioeconomic status.

(Children who walk to school less likely to be overweight or obese, study suggests, University of Cambridge)

The primary goal of breathing is the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen that is critical for life.

(Star-like cells may help the brain tune breathing rhythms, National Institutes of Health)

A cooperative group sponsored by the NCI whose primary goal is to evaluate surgical therapies in the management of patients with malignant solid tumors.

(American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, NCI Thesaurus)

The secondary tumor contains cells that are like those in the original (primary) tumor.

(Metastasis, NCI Thesaurus)

Its purpose is to assist the primary treatment.

(Adjunct therapy, NCI Dictionary)

These findings suggest that long after the primary brain injury, tau accumulations alone may contribute to chronic neurological symptoms.

(Key protein found to have role in long-term complications from traumatic brain injury, NIH)

As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter also can provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

(Juno Spacecraft in Orbit Around Mighty Jupiter, NASA)

A chemotherapy regimen consisting of doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin), bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine, used alone or in combination with radiation therapy, for the primary treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma.

(ABVD regimen, NCI Thesaurus)

An adenocarcinoma which has metastasized from an unknown primary anatomic site.

(Adenocarcinoma of Unknown Primary, NCI Thesaurus)