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Prime vs Fundamental - What's the difference?

prime | fundamental |

As adjectives the difference between prime and fundamental

is that prime is first in importance, degree, or rank while fundamental is pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving for the foundation hence: essential, as an element, principle, or law; important; original; elementary.

As nouns the difference between prime and fundamental

is that prime is (christianity|historical) one of the daily offices of prayer of the western church, associated with the early morning (typically 6 am) while fundamental is a leading or primary principle, rule, law, or article, which serves as the groundwork of a system; essential part, as, the fundamentals of linear algebra.

As a verb prime

is to prepare a mechanism for its main work.

prime

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) prime, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(-)
  • First in importance, degree, or rank.
    • Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.
  • First in time, order, or sequence
    • Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.
  • * Tennyson
    • prime forests
  • * Milton
    • She was not the prime cause, but I myself.
  • First in excellence, quality, or value.
    • This is a prime location for a bookstore.
  • (mathematics, lay) Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).
    • Thirteen is a prime number.
  • (mathematics, technical) Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
  • (mathematics) Having its complement closed under multiplication: said only of ideals.
  • Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
  • Early; blooming; being in the first stage.
  • * Milton
    • His starry helm, unbuckled, showed him prime / In manhood where youth ended.
  • (obsolete) Lecherous; lustful; lewd.
    • (Shakespeare)
    Synonyms
    * greatest, most important, main, primary, principal, top * excellent, top quality * earliest, first, original * (having no nontrivial factors) indivisible * (dividing a factor of any product it divides) *
    Related terms
    * secondary * tertiary

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Christianity, historical) One of the daily offices of prayer of the Western Church, associated with the early morning (typically 6 a.m.).
  • * Spenser
    • Early and late it rung, at evening and at prime .
  • (obsolete) The early morning.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:
    • They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Prime
  • The earliest stage of something.
  • * Hooker
    • in the very prime of the world
  • * Waller
    • Hope waits upon the flowery prime .
  • The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.
  • * Eustace
    • cut off in their prime
  • * Dryden
    • the prime of youth
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 29, author=Nathan Rabin
    • , title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992) , passage=And it’s daunting because each segment has to tell a full, complete story in something like six minutes while doing justice to revered source material and including the non-stop laughs and genius gags that characterized The Simpsons in its god-like prime .}}
  • * 1965 , (Bob Dylan), (Like a Rolling Stone)
    • Once upon a time you dressed so fine. You threw the bums a dime in your prime , didn’t you?
  • The chief or best individual or part.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Give him always of the prime .
  • (music) The first note or tone of a musical scale.
  • (fencing) The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
  • (algebra, number theory) A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz
    • , title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’' cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving ' primes .}}
  • (card games) A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
  • (backgammon) Six consecutive blocks, which prevent the opponent's pieces from passing.
  • The symbol
  • (chemistry, obsolete) Any number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1.
  • An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
    • Synonyms
    * bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flower, flush, heyday, peak * (chief or best individual or part) choice, prize, quality, select * prime number (when an integer)
    Derived terms
    (algebra) * cousin prime * primality * prime constellation * prime number * sexy prime * twin prime

    Etymology 2

    Origin uncertain; perhaps related to primage.

    Verb

    (prim)
  • To prepare a mechanism for its main work.
    • You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.
  • To apply a coat of primer paint to.
    • I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.
  • (obsolete) To be renewed.
  • * Quarles
    • Night's bashful empress, though she often wane, / As oft repeats her darkness, primes again.
  • To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
  • (of a steam boiler) To work so that foaming occurs from too violent ebullition, which causes water to become mixed with, and be carried along with, the steam that is formed.
  • To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
  • To prepare; to make ready; to instruct beforehand; to coach.
    • to prime a witness
    The boys are primed for mischief.
    (Thackeray)
  • (UK, dialect, obsolete) To trim or prune.
    • to prime trees
  • (math) To mark with a prime mark.
    • Synonyms
    * (to apply a coat of primer paint to) ground, undercoat

    Derived terms

    * primer

    Related terms

    * primal * primary * primate * Primates * primy

    See also

    * prime contract * prime decomposition * prime factorization * prime number * pseudoprime

    References

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    fundamental

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A leading or primary principle, rule, law, or article, which serves as the groundwork of a system; essential part, as, the fundamentals of linear algebra.

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the foundation or basis; serving for the foundation. Hence: Essential, as an element, principle, or law; important; original; elementary.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
    • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.}}

    Derived terms

    * fundamentalism * fundamentalist * fundamentality * fundamentally * fundamentalness * fundamental analysis

    Related terms

    * fundament

    Synonyms

    * * See also

    External links

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