Adjective
1. First in importance
2. First in position or time, as in a series: he argued that the country was only in the primary stage of socialism
3. Fundamental or basic: the new policy will put the emphasis on primary health care rather than hospital care
4. Being the first stage; elementary: all new recruits participated in the same primary training courses
5. Relating to the education of children up to the age of 11 or 12
6. (of an industry) involving the obtaining of raw materials
7. (of the flight feathers of a bird's wing) outer and longest
8. Being the part of an electric circuit in which a changing current causes a current in a neighbouring circuit: a primary coil
Noun
pl -ries
1. A person or thing that is first in position, time, or importance
2. (in the US) an election in which the voters of a state choose a candidate for office Full name: (primary election)
3. A primary school
4. A primary colour
5. Any of the outer and longest flight feathers of a bird's wing
6. A primary part of an electric circuit [Latin primarius principal]
hc_dict() Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006