Primaries

How to spell primaries

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce primaries

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does primaries mean?

1. nounPreliminary elections in which a political party's voters choose the candidate who will stand in the main contest.
2. nounThe basic colours from which all others can be mixed, such as red, yellow and blue.
3. nounThe large outer flight feathers at the tip of a bird's wing.

Primaries in a sentence

• The candidate won several state primaries before the convention.

• The art teacher explained how mixing the primaries produces every other shade.

• The eagle spread the long primaries at the ends of its wings to slow its descent.

• Turnout in the primaries was higher than the party expected.

• The nursery walls were painted in bold primaries to brighten the room.

• The bird could not fly properly until its damaged primaries grew back.

Where does primaries come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin primarius, meaning 'of the first rank' or 'chief', which was built on primus, the ordinary Latin word for 'first'. The same primus root sits behind a whole family of familiar English words, including 'prime', 'primitive', 'premier' and 'primer', all carrying the sense of something foremost or earliest. English adopted 'primary' as an adjective in the 1400s by way of medieval Latin and French, and over the centuries it grew specialised noun uses: the chief flight feathers of a bird, the basic colours from which others are mixed, and, in American politics from the late nineteenth century, the preliminary elections that come first in choosing a party candidate. The plural 'primaries' simply adds the regular -es ending, and the spelling stays steady because the -ary suffix is preserved throughout. Remembering that the heart of the word is primus, 'first', helps fix the single m and the -ary ending in place.

How the word is built

• prim- (from Latin primus: first)
• -ary (relating to)
• -es (plural)