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Primary   /prˈaɪmˌɛri/   Listen
Primary

adjective
1.
Of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondary.  "A primary effect" , "Primary sources" , "A primary interest"
2.
Not derived from or reducible to something else; basic.
3.
Most important element.  Synonyms: chief, main, master, principal.  "The main doors were of solid glass" , "The principal rivers of America" , "The principal example" , "Policemen were primary targets" , "The master bedroom" , "A master switch"
4.
Of or being the essential or basic part.  Synonyms: elemental, elementary.
5.
Of primary importance.  Synonym: basal.
noun
(pl. primaries)
1.
A preliminary election where delegates or nominees are chosen.  Synonym: primary election.
2.
One of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing.  Synonyms: primary feather, primary quill.
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.  Synonyms: primary coil, primary winding.



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"Primary" Quotes from Famous Books



... experience wears a face of a disgusting dryness difficult to recall in later days; or if there be any exception - and here destiny steps in - it is in those moments when, wearied or surfeited of the primary activity of the senses, he calls up before memory the image of transacted pains and pleasures. Thus it is that such an one shies from all cut-and-dry professions, and inclines insensibly toward that ...
— Across The Plains • Robert Louis Stevenson

... all in common with them, because, like himself, they are the ministers and adopted children of Bowanee. The destruction of his fellow-creatures, not belonging to his community—the diminution of the human race—that is the primary object of his pursuit; it is not as a means of gain, for though plunder may be a frequent, and doubtless an agreeable accessory, it is only secondary in his estimation. Destruction is his end, his celestial mission, his calling; it is also a delicious passion, the most captivating of all sports—this ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... A manual for the introduction of Froebel's System of Primary Education into Public Schools; and for the use of Mothers and Private Teachers. With 16 plates. 12mo, pp. ...
— Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel • Friedrich Froebel

... Empire or the United States, but for good citizenship in any possible Ireland under any possible form of government. To arrest these influences before they bring on in Ireland a social crash, the effects of which must be felt far beyond the boundaries of that country, is a matter of primary importance, doubtless, to the British people. It is a matter, too, of hardly less than primary importance to the people of my own country. Unfortunately it does not rest with us to devise or to apply an efficient check to ...
— Ireland Under Coercion (2nd ed.) (2 of 2) (1888) • William Henry Hurlbert

... of the firm hold of a party, whether religious or political, upon the public mind, when it may offend with impunity against its own primary principles." ...
— The Story of the Mormons: • William Alexander Linn


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