preliminary
part of speech
adjective (preliminary); noun (a preliminary, preliminaries)
meaning for a pupil
1) Preliminary means coming before the main part and getting ready for it. tree →
2) A preliminary is a first step or early round, such as a heat in a competition. tree →
3) (formal) Preliminaries are things done before the main business, such as greetings. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science a preliminary test is a small first trial before the real experiment. In sport preliminary rounds decide who goes to the final. In formal exam voice: «preliminary results», «preliminary findings». Phrases: «preliminary round», «preliminary results», «without preliminaries».
examples
- We did a preliminary test before the real experiment. tree →
- Our team won the preliminary round. tree →
- The preliminary results look good. tree →
- After the preliminaries, the meeting began. tree →
- A preliminary drawing helps you plan a picture. tree →
- (formal) Preliminary findings indicate an increase in rainfall. tree →
- He skipped the preliminaries and got straight to the point. tree →
- The preliminary heats are in the morning. tree →
- Some stories start off without any preliminary formula, or with a simple "Well, there was once a ----". tree →
note
Spelling: pre-lim-in-ar-y (5 syllables). Plural noun: preliminaries. Preliminary results may change; they are not final.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «preliminary» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.