From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpreliminarypre‧lim‧i‧na‧ry1 /prɪˈlɪmənəri $ -neri/ ●○○ AWL adjective [only before noun] BEGINNINGhappening before something that is more important, often in order to prepare for it the preliminary stages of the competition a preliminary draftpreliminary to The discussions were preliminary to preparing a policy paper.
Examples from the Corpus
preliminary• Field hockey: Two of the favorites are in action in preliminary competition.• On Dec. 13 Landsbergis had announced that a further round of preliminary consultations had been postponed indefinitely by the Soviet side.• None the less, the preliminary design was there, and we had forty years to solve the other problems.• A preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for March 20.• Preliminary market research has shown that most Americans prefer environmentally-friendly products.• The preliminary point to be decided by the judge was: when did the local authority's cause of action accrue?• Vineyards like Napa Ridge like the idea of using low impact, natural pest control and are pleased with the preliminary results.• The architect's plans are still in the preliminary stages.• The sites were chosen from preliminary studies of 28 locations.• Preliminary tests showed that pollution was very high in the river.preliminary to• Renaissance artists considered drawing preliminary to painting.preliminarypreliminary2 AWL noun (plural preliminaries) [countable usually plural] 1 BEGINNINGsomething that is said or done first, to introduce or prepare for something elsepreliminary to Pilot studies are a useful preliminary to large research projects. After the usual preliminaries, the chairman made his announcement.2 DSone of the games in the first part of a competition, when it is decided who will go on to the main competition Four teams will be eliminated in the preliminaries.Examples from the Corpus
preliminary• This is a move that immediately suggests a preliminary to political blackmail.• The official opening is in September, but preliminaries include a showing of sculptures in August.• Of course such a stage is an essential preliminary to the formulation of a theory of the performance of action.• Equally, this important preliminary is vital to the success of choosing a suitable computer system.• He was in Lane 4, center stage, because he had gone faster than anyone else in the morning preliminaries.From Longman Business Dictionarypreliminarypre‧lim‧i‧na‧ry /prɪˈlɪmənəri-neri/ adjective [only before a noun] coming before something more official, more important etcPreliminary estimates indicate that earnings will decline substantially from a year ago.The group will set the preliminary pricing for $235 million revenue bonds.They obtained apreliminary injunction (=a legal ruling, stopping someone doing something) against the company.Origin preliminary1 (1600-1700) French préliminaire, from Medieval Latin praeliminaris, from Latin limen “threshold” 