primary

First or earliest in a group or series.

Children attend primary school, and teenagers attend secondary school.

the church of Christ, in its primary institution

Main; principal; chief; placed ahead of others.

Preferred stock has primary claim on dividends, ahead of common stock.

Earliest formed; fundamental.

Illustrating, possessing, or characterized by, some quality or property in the first degree; having undergone the first stage of substitution or replacement.

Relating to the place where a disorder or disease started to occur.

A primary election; a preliminary election to select a political candidate of a political party, or the first round of a two-round election.

In recent primaries, for example, nearly 4% of absentees were rejected in Philadelphia; 8% in Kentucky; and 20% in parts of New York City.

Before Americans pick a president in November, they get to pick the candidates in a series of primaries and caucuses. […] Biden could still win New Hampshire’s primary through a write-in campaign, but the first sanctioned Democratic contest is in South Carolina in February.

The first year of grade school.

A base or fundamental component; something that is irreducible.

The most massive component of a gravitationally bound system, such as a planet in relation to its satellites.

A primary school.

Excellence in Cities offers a further development of this approach, whereby secondary schools operate with small clusters of primaries as mini-EAZs.

To challenge (an incumbent sitting politician) for their political party's nomination to run for re-election, through running a challenger campaign in a primary election, especially one that is more ideologically extreme.

In the New England town where he ran a “couple of night clubs” . he was “primarying the mayor."

What political facts of life underpin the hopes and dreams of democratic politicians who would take on the awesome task of “primarying” a two-term incumbent governor

To take part in a primary election.

Both were worried that Bailey would break some of their delegate commitments to keep them from primarying.

First, I'd challenge my opponent for the convention nomination. If I didn't prevail at the convention, that would be my answer. I wouldn't “primary” him—meaning, I wouldn't force a statewide primary election if he and I were the only two candidates in the field.