1. preliminary - Noun
2. preliminary - Adjective
3. preliminary - Adjective Satellite
Introductory; previous; preceding the main discourse or business; prefatory; as, preliminary observations to a discourse or book; preliminary articles to a treaty; preliminary measures; preliminary examinations.
That which precedes the main discourse, work, design, or business; something introductory or preparatory; as, the preliminaries to a negotiation or duel; to take one's preliminaries the year before entering college.
Source: Webster's dictionaryA study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind. John Maynard Keynes
Life is the only art that we are required to practice without preparation, and without being allowed the preliminary trials, the failures and botches, that are essential for training. Lewis Mumford
It is evident that one cannot say anything demonstrable about the problem before having resolved these preliminary questions, and yet we hardly possess the necessary information to solve some of them. Georges Cuvier
It is not without fear and trembling that a historian of religion approaches the problem of myth. This is not only because of that preliminary embarrassing question: what is intended by myth? It is also because the answers given depend for the most part on the documents selected. Mircea Eliade
Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. Pericles
In reviling, it is not necessary to prepare a preliminary draft. Chinese Proverb