Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Prior to or preparing for the main matter, action, or business; introductory or prefatory.
- n. Something that precedes, prepares for, or introduces the main matter, action, or business.
- n. An academic test or examination that is preparatory to one that is longer, more complex, or more important.
- n. Sports A contest to determine the finalists in a competition.
- n. Sports An event that precedes the main event of a particular program, especially in boxing or wrestling.
- n. Printing The front matter of a book. Often used in the plural.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Preceding and leading up to something more important; introductory; preparatory; prefatory.
- n. Something which introduces or leads up to following matter or events; an introductory or preparatory statement, measure, action, etc.; a preface; a prelude.
- n. plural In college use, tests in certain elementary subjects previous to the final examinations for entrance.
Wiktionary
- adj. in preparation for the main matter; initial, introductory, preparatory
- n. A preparation for a main matter; an introduction
- n. Any of a series of sports events that determine the finalists
- n. A relatively minor contest that precedes a major one, especially in boxing
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Introductory; previous; preceding the main discourse or business; prefatory.
- n. That which precedes the main discourse, work, design, or business; something introductory or preparatory
WordNet 3.0
- adj. denoting an action or event preceding or in preparation for something more important; designed to orient or acquaint with a situation before proceeding
- n. a minor match preceding the main event
- n. something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows
Etymologies
- From the French préliminaire or from the Modern Latin prælīmināris, formed from præ ("before") + līmen, līmin- ("threshold") + -āris (adjectival suffix); compare the Latin līmināris ("of or belonging to a threshold"). (Wiktionary)
- From New Latin praelīmināris : Latin prae-, pre- + Latin līmen, līmin-, threshold. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This smells to high holy heaven, because when you look at the Illinois report, nowhere was the word preliminary ever used," Weiss said, noting that the fusion center - which is composed of Illinois state police, as well as representatives from the FBI and DHS - distributed the report to other critical infrastructure facilities in that state.”
“White House Press Secretary Tony Snow told reporters earlier this morning that there haven't been any run-throughs just yet, but certainly the president has had time to review what he called preliminary drafts.”
“FEMA has mobilized what they call preliminary disaster assessment teams, those who are going down to Florida from places like Georgia.”
“It looks like -- the FBI, they have what they call a preliminary inquiry open right now.”
“Certainly, if the charges are confirmed, there will have to be what we call preliminary issues discussed, but certainly it goes without saying that all those that are involved in the trial process must attend the client and accept instructions.”
“MISSIRI: Well, within the first 12 hours, actually, we launched what we call a preliminary appeal.”
“I articulated the same sentiment to a Ms Jessica Law, the CAFCASS reporter, who visited me at home for what she described as a preliminary interview.”
“Well, after some nudging from members of Congress, most notably Senator Jay Rockefeller, the FBI is now conducting what they call a preliminary inquiry into the forged documents.”
“Announcing what it called preliminary results of the Aug. 17-27 census, the radio said the population in the last census 10 years ago was 10.4 million people, when the population growth rate was”
“This is only what they call preliminary overtures.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘preliminary’.
-
EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
-
EU Buzz - single words (1+2+3)
1. Strictly EU terms with special European meaning used only in the EU
+
2. Keywords central to the understanding of the EU (people working for the EU are usually able to give thematic...acceleration, action, additionality, administrator, agenda, agricultural, agri-environmental, agriflation, agri-food, applicant, approach, assent and 1325 more...
-
FYS100
Word discovery & discussion by CSUMB first-year students, to help with required texts.
trippy, bantam, patience, Roseto, Froth, legit, patronage, quarries, compatriot, intact, baby boomer, virtuosos and 35 more...
-
Test words
vacation, tourist, tourist office, travel, read, newspaper, book, magazine, television, music, radio, nightclub and 68 more...
-
dharma66's list
words that pique my interest either by meaning, pronunciation, or spelling, and words that otherwise tickle my fancy!!
pique, elusive, serendipity, nefarious, redundant, pseudoscientific, obsequious, flack, quandary, impervious, perchance, translucent and 168 more...
-
five syllables
ontogenesis, phylogenesis, concatenation, androgenesis, extra textual, inexorably, spagyrically, apophenia, iatrochemist, monocotyloid, morphological, parthenogenic and 941 more...
-
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
-
fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
-
Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
-
ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
-
Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
-
NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
-
From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for preliminary.
travismcdermott 1656 O. CROMWELL Let. 6 May in W. C. Abbott Writings & Speeches O. Cromwell (1947) IV. 154 There were some preliminaries to be performed by him before we would enter upon the whole body of a Treaty. Jul 27, 2008