primary

1. First or highest in rank, quality, or importance; principal.
2. Being or standing first in a list, series, or sequence.
3. Occurring first in time or sequence; earliest.
4. Being or existing as the first or earliest of a kind; primitive.
5. Geology. Characteristic of or existing in a rock at the time of its formation.
6. Serving as or being an essential component, as of a system; basic. See synonyms at chief.
7. 1. Immediate; direct: a primary effect; a primary information source.
   2. Preliminary to a later stage in a continuing process: primary training.
   3. Of or relating to a primary school: the primary grades.
8. Of or relating to a primary color or colors.
9. Linguistics.
   1. Having a word root or other linguistic element as a basis that cannot be further analyzed or broken down. Used of the derivation of a word or word element.
   2. Referring to present or future time. Used as a collective designation for various present and future verb tenses in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit.
10. Electronics. Of, relating to, or constituting an inducting current, circuit, or coil.
11. Of, relating to, or designating the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing.
12. Of or relating to agriculture, forestry, the industries that extract natural materials from the earth, or the products so obtained: a primary commodity.
13. Chemistry.
    1. Relating to the replacement of one of several atoms or radicals in a compound by another atom or radical.
    2. Having a carbon atom attached solely to one other carbon atom in a molecule.
14. Botany. Of, relating to, or derived from a primary meristem.

1. 1. One that is first in time, order, or sequence.
   2. One that is first or best in degree, quality, or importance.
   3. One that is fundamental, basic, or elemental.
2. 1. A meeting of the registered voters of a political party for the purpose of nominating candidates and for choosing delegates to their party convention.
   2. A preliminary election in which the registered voters of a political party nominate candidates for office.
3. A primary color.
4. A primary flight feather.
5. Electronics. An inducting current, circuit, or coil.
6. Astronomy.
   1. A celestial body, especially a star, relative to other bodies in orbit around it.
   2. The brighter of two stars that make up a double star.

[Middle English, from Latin prīmārius, chief, from prīmus, first.]

adjective

1. Most important, influential, or significant: capital, cardinal, chief, first, foremost, key, leading, main, major, number one, paramount, premier, prime, principal, top. See important/unimportant.
2. Preceding all others in time: earliest, first, initial, maiden, original, pioneer, prime, primordial. See start/end.
3. Not derived from something else: original, prime, primitive. See start/end.
4. Arising from or going to the root or source: basal, basic, foundational, fundamental, original, radical, underlying. See surface/depth.
5. Marked by the absence of any intervention: direct, firsthand, immediate. See clear/unclear, near/far/distance.

First in time; first in order in any series.

A primary is a state-run election for the purpose of nominating party candidates to run in the general election. Presidential primaries perform this function indirectly, because voters elect delegates to a national convention rather than directly seeking presidential candidates. Most states restrict voting in a primary to party members; such states are called closed primary states. Open primary states allow the voter to choose either party's ballot in the voting booth on primary day, and none of the open primary states require voter registration by party. Today, more than three-fourths of the states use presidential primaries; in the 2000 presidential election, approximately 84 percent of the Democratic delegates and 89 percent of the Republican delegates were chosen in the primaries.

First; basic.

• p. accession — the first contact with the veterinarian by an animal for the particular condition or disease incident that is the cause of the visit.
• p. accession practice — a veterinary practice that does most of its work with primary accession cases—not a specialty practice.
• p. bile acids — see bile acids.
• p. carcinogens — substances that react directly with a specific biological group in living tissue resulting in the development of a neoplasm. They are mostly synthetic compounds or metals.
• p. case — the patient which brings the disease into the population.
• p. complex of Ranke — in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis is the primary lesion with a similar lesion in the draining lymph node.
• p. health care — routine outpatient care.
• p. immune response — see humoral immunity.
• p. intention healing — see healing by first intention.
• p. rumen cycle — see reticuloruminal contractions.
• p. ruminal tympany — intrinsic to reticuloruminal dysfunction; not secondary to traumatic reticulitis, esophageal obstruction.
• p. ruminant gastrointestinal dysfunction — dysfunction intrinsic to the gastrointestinal tract of the ruminant; not secondary to dysfunction in some other organ.

First winding of a transformer. Winding that is connected to the source as opposed to secondary which is a winding connected to a load.

State elections of delegates to the nominating convention that chooses a major party's presidential candidate. In some states, delegates are elected by popular vote; in other states, party caucuses or miniconventions choose delegates.

Refers to a mineral deposit that formed directly from hot-water solutions or from molten rocks.

Look up primary in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word Primary when used alone may refer to any of the following:

• Primary (astronomy), the larger of two co-orbiting bodies
• Primary is used for the name of the primary mirror in a telescope.
• Primary (band), from Australia
• Primary circuit, electrical circuit in a Transformer that receives current, as opposed to secondary circuit
• Power line that is fed to or from a transformer
• Primary (film), 1960 documentary
• Primary (LDS Church), children's Sunday School organization
• "Primary" (song), by The Cure
• Primary, the oldest period in the Geologic time scale (obsolete)
• "Primary", a song by Spoon from the album Telephono
• Primary election
  • United States presidential primary
  • Primary elections in Italy
• Primaries, remiges (wing feathers) in birds
• Primaries or primary beams, in E. E. Smith's science-fiction series Lensman

See also

• Primary education, the first stage of compulsory education
• Primary field, a type of field in conformal field theory
• Primary Flight Training, in the U.S. Navy
• Primary FRCA, academic examination for anaesthetists in the U.K.
• Primary ideals, a concept in commutative algebra
• Primary Music, Israeli record label
• Primary school, a school providing primary education
• Primary source

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - primær, forberedende, vigtigst
n. - primært led, primærvalg

idioms:

• primary colour    grundfarve, primærfarve
• primary elections    primærvalg
• primary school    underskole, grundskole

Nederlands (Dutch)
primair, vroegst, voorverkiezing

Français (French)
adj. - primaire
n. - primaire

idioms:

• primary colour    couleur primaire
• primary elections    élections primaires
• primary school    école primaire

Deutsch (German)
n. - Vorwahl, Hauptplanet, Paläozoikum, Primärspule, Schwungfeder
adj. - primär, Haupt-

idioms:

• primary colour    Grundfarbe, Primärfarbe
• primary elections    Vorwahl
• primary school    Grundschule

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ΗΠΑ) προκριματική εκλογή, (αστρον.) πρωτεύων πλανήτης
adj. - αρχικός, πρώτος, βασικός, πρωτεύων, πρώτιστος, κυριότερος, κύριος, θεμελιώδης, ουσιώδης, στοιχειώδης (εκπαίδευση)

idioms:

• primary colour    βασικό χρώμα
• primary elections    προκριματικές εκλογές
• primary school    δημοτικό (σχολείο)

Italiano (Italian)
di primaria importanza, principale, primario, di base, elementare, preparatorio, primo

idioms:

• primary colour    colori primari
• primary elections    elezioni primarie
• primary school    scuola elementare

Português (Portuguese)
n. - primário (m), fundamental (m)
adj. - primário, fundamental, básico

idioms:

• primary colour    cor primária
• primary elections    eleições primárias
• primary school    escola primária

Русский (Russian)
первоначальный, основной, первичный выбор

idioms:

• primary colour    основной цвет
• primary elections    первичные выборы
• primary school    начальная школа

Español (Spanish)
adj. - principal, fundamental, primario
n. - lo principal, planeta primario

idioms:

• primary colour    colores primarios
• primary elections    elecciones primarias o preliminares
• primary school    escuela primaria

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - primärval, förberedande valmöte
adj. - första, ursprunglig, grundläggande, grund-, elementär, huvudsaklig, förnämst

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
主要的, 根本的, 初期的, 居首位的事物, 候选人选拔会, 原色, 初选

idioms:

• primary colour    原色
• primary elections    初选
• primary school    小学

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 主要的, 根本的, 初期的
n. - 居首位的事物, 候選人選拔會, 原色, 初選

idioms:

• primary colour    原色
• primary elections    初選
• primary school    小學

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 첫째의, 제1의
n. - 제1원리, 원색, 행성

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 第一の, 主要な, 根本の, 根本的な, 原始の, 初期の, 初等の, 最初の
n. - 第一のもの, 原色, 予備選挙

idioms:

• primary colour    原色
• primary elections    予備選挙, 政党支部の幹部会議
• primary school    小学校

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) بدائي, ابتدائي, أساسي (صفه) اولي, أصلي‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮ראשוני, בסיסי, מקורי, עיקרי, קדום, ראשון, יסודי, בשלב ההתפתחות הנמוך ביותר‬
n. - ‮דבר ראשוני, צבע יסוד, בחירה מוקדמת (של מועמדים, ארה"ב), גוף שמיימי שלוויין חג סביבו, כוכב-לכת, תקופה גיאולוגית, נוצה גדולה בכנף ציפור‬

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