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Primary vs Firstly - What's the difference?

primary | firstly |

As an adjective primary

is the first in a group or series.

As a noun primary

is a primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party.

As a verb primary

is (us|intransitive) to take part in a primary election.

As an adverb firstly is

(formal) in the first place; before anything else; first.

primary

English

(wikipedia primary)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • The first in a group or series.
    • Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.
  • * Bishop Pearson
    • the church of Christ, in its primary institution
  • * John Locke
    • These I call original, or primary , qualities of body.
  • Main; principal; placed ahead of others.
    • Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.
  • (geology) Earliest formed; fundamental.
  • (chemistry) Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.
  • (label) idiopathic

    • Derived terms

    * primarily * primary care * primary color, primary colour * primary producer * primary research * primary school * primary source

    See also

    * first * primus inter pares * secondary (2) * tertiary (3) * quaternary (4)

    Noun

    (primaries)
  • A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party.
  • The first year of grade school.
  • A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.
  • The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system.
  • A primary school.
  • * 2001 , David Woods, Martyn Cribb, Effective LEAs and school improvement
    • Excellence in Cities offers a further development of this approach, whereby secondary schools operate with small clusters of primaries as mini-EAZs.
  • (ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the manus (hand) of a bird.
  • A primary colour.
  • * 2003 , Julie A Jacko, Andrew Sears, The human-computer interaction handbook
    • By adding and subtracting the three primaries , cyan, yellow, and magenta are produced. These are called subtractive primaries.
  • (electronics) A directly driven inductive coil, as in a transformer or induction motor that is magnetically coupled to a secondary

    • Verb

  • (US) To take part in a primary election.
  • (US, politics) To challenge an incumbent sitting politician for their political party's endorsement to run for re-election, through running a challenger campaign in a primary election

    • External links

    * *

    firstly

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (formal) In the first place; before anything else; first.
  • *
    • Firstly , I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants. Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.

    Usage notes

    * Whether it is proper to use "firstly", rather than "first", has often been disputed. ** Beginning in the early 19th century with de Quincey, who erroneously believed that "firstly" was a neologism, some have argued against the use of "firstly", advocating the sequence: "First", "secondly", "thirdly", .... ** The usage of "firstly" is also deprecated by some modern style guides. International English Usage The Chicago Manual of Style further recommends that all such -ly forms be avoided, and that list items begin only with "first", "second", and so forth. ** Other authorities disagree. *** The American Heritage Dictionary comments: ***: It is well established that either first'' or ''firstly'' can be used to begin an enumeration: ''Our objectives are, first'' (or ''firstly''), ''to recover from last year's slump. *** The Oxford English Dictionary'' notes the dispute but does not pass judgment: "many writers prefer ''first'', even though closely followed by ''secondly'', ''thirdly'', etc." "Firstly" in the ''Oxford English Dictionary , online edition (subscription required) ** "Firstly" may appear more formal than "first" and is often recommended for the formal enumeration of arguments. Writing in a Formal Style for Academic Purposes

    Synonyms

    * first * first of all * first up

    References

    English sequence adverbs