primary

adjective
prīʹmĕr-ē

first or earliest in a group or series.

Example

“Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.”

Other meanings

main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.
Earliest formed; fundamental.

Related words

primarily
primary care
primary producer
primary radar
primary research
primary school
primary source
primary surveillance radar
pre-primary
primary accent
primary alcohol
primary amine

Word history

From Latin "prīmārius" (of the first (rank); chief, principal; excellent).

Where this comes from

This definition is adapted from “primary” on Wiktionary, by its contributors, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.