Primary may refer to:
- Primary (astronomy), the larger of two co-orbiting bodies
- Primary mirror, principal light-gathering surface of a reflecting telescope
- Primary (band), from Australia
- Primary circuit, electrical circuit in a transformer that receives current, as opposed to secondary circuit
- Primary election, an election by which a political party selects and nominates a candidate
- Power line, electric power transmission line fed to or from a transformer
- Primary (film), 1960 documentary
- Primary (LDS Church), children's Sunday School organization
- "Primary" (song), by The Cure
- Primary, the oldest period in the Geologic time scale (obsolete)
- "Primary", a song by Spoon from the album Telephono
- Primaries, remiges (wing feathers) in birds
- Primaries or primary beams, in E. E. Smith's science-fiction series Lensman
- The first stage in a thermonuclear explosive, may also be used alone in a lower-yield nuclear explosive, see nuclear weapon design
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Famous quotes containing the word primary:
“Anyone who has obeyed nature by transmitting a piece of gossip experiences the explosive relief that accompanies the satisfying of a primary need.”
—Primo Levi (1919–1987)
“The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition on a pedestal. It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the sources of cultural attitudes and values.... Because myth anchors the present in the past it is a sociological charter for a future society which is an exact replica of the present one.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)
“A fact is a proposition of which the verification by an appeal to the primary sources of our knowledge or to experience is direct and simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true, has all the characteristics of a fact except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means.”
—Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)