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Primary vs Wherefore - What's the difference?

primary | wherefore |

As nouns the difference between primary and wherefore

is that primary is a primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party while wherefore is an intent or purpose; a why.

As an adjective primary

is the first in a group or series.

As a verb primary

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

As an adverb wherefore is

(conjunctive|archaic) why, for what reason, because of what.

As a conjunction wherefore is

(archaic) because of which.

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

    * *

    wherefore

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (conjunctive, archaic) Why, for what reason, because of what.
  • * 1920 , (Herman Cyril McNeile), Bulldog Drummond Chapter 1
    • "Good morning, Mrs. Denny," he said. "Wherefore this worried look on your face? Has that reprobate James been misbehaving himself?"
  • * "Job", Holy Bible King James Version, 21:7:
    • Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
  • * 1595 ,
    • Romeo, O Romeo. Wherefore art thou, Romeo?
  • * 1595 ,
    • Every why hath a wherefore .
  • (conjunctive, archaic, or, formal) Therefore.

    • Usage notes

    * A common misconception is that wherefore means where''; it has even been used in that sense in cartoon depictions of Romeo and Juliet, often played for comedic effect. In ''Romeo and Juliet'', the meaning of “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” () is not “''Where'' are you, Romeo?” but “''Why are you Romeo?” (i.e. “Why did you have to be a Montague?”).

    See also

    *

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • (archaic) Because of which.
  • :* Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
    Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.     (Isaiah 30:12-13)
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1914 , year_published=2009 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=The Mucker , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=Wherefore it was that by the time the authorities awoke to the fact that something had happened Billy Byrne was fifty miles west of Joliet, bowling along aboard a fast Santa Fe freight. }}

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An intent or purpose; a why.
  • *

    • Derived terms

    * whys and wherefores

    References

    English conjunctive adverbs English pronominal adverbs