Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Being first in time; original; primeval.
- adjective Of first importance; primary.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Primary; first in time, order, or importance; original; primitive.
- [capitalized] In geology, the earliest of H. D. Rogers's divisions of the Paleozoic series of Pennsylvania, equivalent to the Potsdam sandstone of the New York Survey.
- In natural history, specifically, of or pertaining to the kingdom Primalia.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective First; primary; original; chief.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Being the
first in time, orhistory . - adjective Being of greatest
importance ;primary .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective serving as an essential component
- adjective having existed from the beginning; in an earliest or original stage or state
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I like using the term primal scream in advocating the end of homelessness, because it instills a sense of desperation in an economic system that is sadly spewing out homelessness in cities around the world.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Joel John Roberts 2011
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But here we may be questioned about these numbers which we describe as the primal and authentic:
The Six Enneads. Plotinus 1952
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She could comprehend certain primal and analogous characteristics in a hungry wolf-dog or a starving man, and predicate lines of action to be pursued by either under like conditions.
THE SCORN OF WOMEN 2010
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She could comprehend certain primal and analogous characteristics in a hungry wolf-dog or a starving man, and predicate lines of action to be pursued by either under like conditions.
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There's a mental picture for you - Ahmadinejad in primal scream therapy with Lindsay Lohan. paschendale191 …
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Humans have twin primal urges: to fear change for themselves yet want it for others.
USATODAY.com - The more things change in sports, do things stay same? 2004
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She could comprehend certain primal and analogous characteristics in a hungry wolf-dog or a starving man, and predicate lines of action to be pursued by either under like conditions.
The Scorn of Women 1901
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She hadn't told me any of that, but apparently, my intuition was spot on because at that point Joanne curled up in a ball and started sobbing uncontrollably and nearly dry heaving in what I can best describe as primal agony.
Mark Goulston, M.D.: Is Daddy An A-Hole? M.D. Mark Goulston 2011
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She hadn't told me any of that, but apparently, my intuition was spot on because at that point Joanne curled up in a ball and started sobbing uncontrollably and nearly dry heaving in what I can best describe as primal agony.
Mark Goulston, M.D.: Is Daddy An A-Hole? M.D. Mark Goulston 2011
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So that when we come to look at liberalism in a critical spirit, we have to expect that there will be a discrepancy between what I have called the primal imagination of liberalism and its present particular imagination.
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