primary

adjective

most important, first

L6084 on Wikidata ↗

noun

election that narrows the field of candidates before an election for office
first, main

L6085 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹi/ / /ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹ.i/ / /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹi/

adj

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.

First or earliest in a group or series.
“Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.”
“the church of Christ, in its primary institution”
Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
“Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.”
Earliest formed; fundamental.
Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.
Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.

noun

A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party, or the first round of a two-round election.
“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.”
The first year of grade school.
A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
A primary school.
“Excellence in Cities offers a further development of this approach, whereby secondary schools operate with small clusters of primaries as mini-EAZs.”
Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
“`Good Lord, look at that swiftlet, it's got two primaries missing from its left wing!'”
A primary colour.
“By adding and subtracting the three primaries, cyan, yellow, and magenta are produced. These are called subtractive primaries.”
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.
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.
The primary site of a disease; the original location or source of the disease.
“unknown primary”
“most common primaries”
A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.

verb

To challenge (an incumbent sitting politician) for their political party's nomination to run for re-election, through running a challenger campaign in a primary election, especially one that is more ideologically extreme.
“In the New England town where he ran a “couple of night clubs” . he was “primarying the mayor."”
“What political facts of life underpin the hopes and dreams of democratic politicians who would take on the awesome task of “primarying” a two-term incumbent governor”
To take part in a primary election.
“Both were worried that Bailey would break some of their delegate commitments to keep them from primarying.”
“First, I'd challenge my opponent for the convention nomination. If I didn't prevail at the convention, that would be my answer. I wouldn't “primary” him—meaning, I wouldn't force a statewide primary election if he and I were the only two candidates in the field.”