| / English Dictionary |
PRELIMINARY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows
Example:
drinks were the overture to dinner
Synonyms:
overture; preliminary; prelude
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("preliminary" is a kind of...):
inception; origin; origination (an event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of subsequent events)
Derivation:
preliminary (denoting an action or event preceding or in preparation for something more important)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A minor match preceding the main event
Synonyms:
prelim; preliminary
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural events
Hypernyms ("preliminary" is a kind of...):
athletic competition; athletic contest; athletics (a contest between athletes)
Derivation:
preliminary (denoting an action or event preceding or in preparation for something more important)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Denoting an action or event preceding or in preparation for something more important
Example:
a preliminary investigation
Classified under:
Similar:
explorative; exploratory (serving in or intended for exploration or discovery)
Derivation:
preliminary (something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows)
preliminary (a minor match preceding the main event)
Context examples:
The acquisition for the LBFD X-plane contract will be fully open and competitive, with the QueSST preliminary design data being made available to qualified bidders.
(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)
The research is preliminary, and the scientists caution that only one concentration of the clay suspension was tested.
(Clay fights MRSA, other 'superbugs' in wounds, National Science Foundation)
As the Belgian professor recalled that in the preliminary results there is already a large amount of expertise and proof, it must be said.
(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)
Sitting too much is linked to changes in a section of the brain that is critical for memory, according to a preliminary study by UCLA researchers of middle-aged and older adults.
(Sitting Is Bad for Your Brain, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
There are preliminary findings in the literature that seem to indicate that adults with brainstem gliomas may have a better survival time.
(Brain Stem Astrocytoma, NCI Thesaurus)
I fear, my friend, that I shall render myself tedious by dwelling on these preliminary circumstances; but they were days of comparative happiness, and I think of them with pleasure.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Two years after the initiation of the study, the researchers observed encouraging preliminary results.
(Greener palm oil possible without sacrificing profit, SciDev.Net)
A qualifier used to describe the workflow progression of a laboratory observation outcome in terms of being finished, concluded, interpreted as preliminary, needed to be repeated, etc.
(Laboratory Test Result Status, NCI Thesaurus)
The study team regards this study as preliminary and exploratory.
(Researchers identify genetic links to educational attainment, NIH)
This brutal preliminary seemed to shadow forth some strange and inexplicable horror in the background.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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