Preliminary

How to spell preliminary

11 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce preliminary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does preliminary mean?

1. adjectiveComing before or in preparation for the main event, stage, or action.
2. nounAn action or event that introduces or precedes the main matter.

Preliminary in a sentence

• adjective

  The preliminary results suggested the treatment was working, but more tests were needed.

• noun

  The committee dealt with one final preliminary before moving to the main agenda.

• adjective

  After a brief preliminary meeting, the negotiators agreed to reconvene the following week.

• noun

  As a preliminary to the contract, both parties signed a letter of intent.

Where does preliminary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin limen, which literally meant 'threshold' or 'doorway', the strip across the bottom of a doorframe that you step over to enter a room. By adding the prefix prae, meaning 'before', Latin writers formed a sense of something that comes before you cross the threshold, in other words a preparatory step. The term entered English in the seventeenth century, drawing on the Latin praeliminaris, to describe events or actions that lead up to a main one. The same limen root quietly survives in 'subliminal', literally 'below the threshold' of awareness, and in 'eliminate', originally 'to put out across the threshold'. The tricky spelling lives in the unstressed middle: the 'limin' part hides two i sounds that blur in speech, so writers often drop a letter or swap in an e.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• limin (threshold)
• -ary (relating to)