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primary

/ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹ.i/adjective, noun, verb

primary is spelled P-R-I-M-A-R-Y: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 76 times per million words in written English, the 1,394th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, primary means “First or earliest in a group or series” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in primary?

Letters7: P-R-I-M-A-R-Y
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing76 times per million words; the 1,394th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is primary?

Primary appears 76 times per million words in written English, the 1,394th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce primary?

  • UK /ˈpɹaɪ.m(ə.)ɹi/
  • US /ˈpɹaɪˌmɛɹ.i/
  • US /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹi/

Primary has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-primary.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of primary

  • more primary comparative
  • most primary superlative
  • primaries plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • primarying participle, present
  • primaried participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does primary mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    First or earliest in a group or series.

    Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.

  2. 2

    Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.

  3. 3

    Earliest formed; fundamental.

    Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.

  4. 4

    Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.

  5. 5

    Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.

  6. 6

    Relating to day-to-day care provided by health professionals such as nurses, general practitioners, dentists etc.

noun

  1. 1

    A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party, or the first round of a two-round election.

  2. 2

    The first year of grade school.

  3. 3

    A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.

  4. 4

    The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.

  5. 5

    A primary school.

  6. 6

    Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.

  7. 7

    A primary colour.

  8. 8

    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.

verb

  1. 1

    USTo 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.

  2. 2

    USTo take part in a primary election.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Primary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchprimaire (first in a group or series), prioritaire (that which is placed ahead of others)
Portugueseprimário, primária, primários, primárias (first in a group or series)
Spanishprimario (first in a group or series), primarias (preliminary election), primaria, primero (first year of grade school), básico (base or fundamental component)
Germanprimär (that which is placed ahead of others), Vorwahl (preliminary election), Handschwinge (ornithology: flight feather)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does primary come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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