adj.
- of chief importance; principal.
- earliest in time or order.
▸
(Primary)
Geology former term for Palaeozoic.
- not caused by or based on anything else.
- chiefly Brit. relating to or denoting education for children between the ages of about five and eleven.
- of or denoting the input side of a transformer or other inductive device.
- Chemistry (of an organic compound) having its functional group on a carbon atom bonded to no more than one other carbon atom.
▸derived from ammonia by replacement of one hydrogen atom by an organic group.
n.
(pl. primaries)
- (in the US) a preliminary election to appoint delegates to a party conference or to select the candidates for a principal, especially presidential, election.
- Astronomy the body orbited by a smaller body.
Etymology
ME: from L. primarius, from primus ‘first’.