Word · CEFR B2 · Frequency #1172
primary
初选；预选
A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate.
- 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.
初选；为选出政党候选人或两轮选举的第一轮而进行的预选。
- 2.
a preliminary election where delegates or nominees are chosen
初选
- 3.
The first year of grade school.
小学一年级。
- 4.
one of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing
初级飞羽
- 5.
A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
基本或基础成分；不可再分的东西。
- 6.
(astronomy) a celestial body (especially a star) relative to other objects in orbit around it
主星
- 7.
The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.
引力束缚系统中最重的组成部分,如行星相对于其卫星。
- 8.
A primary school.
小学。
- 9.
Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
鸟类附着在手部的飞羽。
- 10.
A primary colour.
原色。
- 11.
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.
热核武器的第一阶段,通过裂变爆炸引发武器第二阶段的聚变反应。
- 12.
A radar return from an aircraft (or other object) produced solely by the reflection of the radar beam from the aircraft's skin, without additional information from the aircraft's transponder.
由雷达波反射回来的飞机(或其他物体)的雷达回波,不含来自飞机应答器的附加信息。
- 13.
The primary site of a disease; the original location or source of the disease.
疾病的原发部位；疾病的最初位置或来源。
- 14.
A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary.
直接驱动的感应线圈,如变压器或感应电机中与次级磁耦合的线圈。
小学；原色；基色；基础；基本成分；小学一年级；初级飞羽
In use
Many states hold their primary in March.
The bird's primaries are damaged, so it cannot fly well.
The planet's primary is a massive star.
the [party] primary
这里的 primary 是可数名词，指政党预选。
The Republican primary will be held next month.
共和党初选将于下个月举行。
win/lose a/the primary
win/lose 后面直接接 primary，不用介词。
She lost the primary by only one percent.
她仅以一个百分点的差距输掉了初选。
vote in a/the primary
表示“在初选中投票”时，用 in the primary。
Make sure you vote in the primary.
Connections
Collocations
- win the primary
- 赢得初选
- She won the primary by a narrow margin.她以微弱优势赢得了初选。
- presidential primary
- 总统初选
- The presidential primary will be held in March.总统初选将于三月举行。
- primary season
- 初选季
- During primary season, the candidates travel constantly.初选季期间，候选人不断巡回奔波。
- the three primaries
- 三原色
- Red, green, and blue are the three primaries.红、绿、蓝是三原色。
Synonyms
- primary election
- 初选 · primary 是 primary election 的常见缩略，语境明确时可互换；正式或书面语多用完整形式。
Learner notes
Memory Tip
primary 里有 prime（首要），初选就是首要的预选。
Context & Register
语域：neutral 常见场景：美国选举报道、政治讨论、投票相关场合 作名词表示‘初选’时，多用于美国政治选举语境，指政党预选或初选；常见于新闻报道和日常讨论，语气中性。
Grammar Note
As a countable noun, 'primary' is used in elections, ornithology, and astronomy.
Pronunciation & Spelling
No common words rhyme with primary /ˈpraɪˌmɛri/. Library, secondary, necessary, ordinary, and dictionary all end in -ary but have different stress patterns and vowel sounds, so they are spelling lookalikes rather than rhymes. Diary also looks similar but is pronounced /ˈdaɪəri/ and does not rhyme with primary.
High-value vocabulary
该词属于 Oxford 核心词汇，值得优先掌握常见搭配和句型。
Usage priority
Collins 词频等级为 3，建议结合例句记忆，而不是只背中文释义。
Learn the forms together
页面下方列出了常见词形变化。学习时注意它们在句子中的语法位置。
Dictionary facts from DICTIONARY_API_DEV, ECDICT, WIKTIONARY.