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Primary vs Intermediate - What's the difference?

primary | intermediate |

In chemistry terms the difference between primary and intermediate

is that primary is illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement while intermediate is any substance formed as part of a series of chemical reactions that is not the end-product.

As adjectives the difference between primary and intermediate

is that primary is the first in a group or series while intermediate is being between two extremes, or in the middle of a range.

As nouns the difference between primary and intermediate

is that primary is a primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party while intermediate is anything in an intermediate position.

As verbs the difference between primary and intermediate

is that primary is to take part in a primary election while intermediate is to mediate, to be an intermediate.

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
  • intermediate

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Being between two extremes, or in the middle of a range.
  • {{quote-Fanny Hill, part=3 , which covered his belly to the navel and gave it the air of a flesh brush; and soon I felt it joining close to mine, when he had drove the nail up to the head, and left no partition but the intermediate hair on both sides.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anything in an intermediate position.
  • An intermediary.
  • (chemistry) Any substance formed as part of a series of chemical reactions that is not the end-product.
  • Verb

    (intermediat)
  • to mediate, to be an intermediate
  • to arrange, in the manner of a broker
  • Central banks need to regulate the entities that intermediate monetary transactions.

    Derived terms

    * intermediation *