preliminary

preliminary adj Preliminary, introductory, preparatory, prefatory describe something that serves to make ready the way for something else.

Preliminary suggests reference to what must be done or made ready or acquired before entrance into some definitive state or activity becomes possible

{

the small amount of trouble involved in this preliminary measure will prove to be well worthwhile in avoiding muddle— Dowdeswell

}

{

a preliminary education obtained at home and in the local schools— Phalen

}

{

the ideal of cultivation cannot be appealed to as a standard without preliminary explanations and interpretations— Eliot

}

{

the scientific spirit demands ... a wish to find out the truth .... There must be preliminary uncertainty, and subsequent decision according to the evidence— Russell

}

Introductory usually implies reference to the first steps in a process and therefore seldom applies to what is a prerequisite, as does preliminary, but rather to what sets an action, a work, or a process going

{

the introductory scene should present the situation to be developed

}

{

an introductory sketch of equity courts and their jurisdiction— Wilkinson

}

Preparatory comes close to preliminary in meaning, but it throws the emphasis upon matters that should be attended to in order to make a person or thing ready for what ensues or may ensue

{

take preparatory measures against a possible air raid

}

{

a note on sources and a bibliography . . . indicate the wide range of the author's preparatory reading— Bruun

}

Prefatory usually suggests not absolute need of preparation but a desire on the part of someone to prepare others (as for reading, for hearing, for action, or for understanding)

{

remarks prefatory to the customary toasts

}

{

he introduces each of them with a really distinguished little group of prefatory passages— Bierstedt

}

Analogous words: *primary, primal: *elementary, elemental: basic, *fundamental