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Initial — action before the main event
Answer for the clue "Initial — action before the main event ", 11 letters:
preliminary
Alternative clues for the word preliminary
Word definitions for preliminary in dictionaries
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
a. in preparation for the main matter; initial, introductory, preparatory n. 1 A preparation for a main matter; an introduction 2 Any of a series of sports events that determine the finalists 3 A relatively minor contest that precedes a major one, especially ...
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Preliminary \Pre*lim"i*na*ry\, n.; pl. Preliminaries . That which precedes the main discourse, work, design, or business; something introductory or preparatory; as, the preliminaries to a negotiation or duel; to take one's preliminaries the year before ...
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
I. adjective COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES a preliminary draft (= coming before others ) ▪ A preliminary draft of the charter has been issued. a preliminary/initial examination ▪ The inland revenue began a preliminary examination of his tax returns in ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. a minor match preceding the main event [syn: prelim ] something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to employment"; "drinks were the overture to dinner" [syn: overture , prelude ]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1660s, from French préliminaire and directly from Medieval Latin praeliminaris , from Latin prae- "before" (see pre- ) + limen (genitive liminis ) "threshold" (see limit (n.)). A word that arose in reference to negotiations to end the Thirty Years' War. ...
Usage examples of preliminary.
Monday morning and planted a heap of papers on his desk: sketch-plans, preliminary figures worked out on my portable analogue computer, estimates, the lot.
The affair of Staps, perhaps, made Napoleon anxious to hurry away from Schoenbrunn, for he set off before he had ratified the preliminaries of the peace, announcing that he would ratify them at Munich.
Preliminary skin-tests of the antibody suspension showed no sign of untoward reaction.
After a decade or more of confrontation they would anticipate a preliminary air campaign.
Dudley Field, though participating in the preliminary consultations, was excluded from the delegation through the influence of Mr.
The Poetical Works of John Milton: with a life of the author, preliminary dissertations on each poem, notes critical and explanatory, and a verbal index.
Karia and so past Marga and its Frenchmen to Kutali, thus spending the least possible time in preliminaries.
This would mean that new learning corresponds to the generation of new synapses or the activation of moribund old ones, and some preliminary evidence consistent with this view has been obtained by the American neuroanatomist William Greenough of the University of Illinois and his coworkers.
I opened my kit, took out a multimeter and a set of probes, and began a preliminary check of the panel itself.
Yavvitiri Spaceport, a few kilometers from the Preparation Center where all the preliminary work on Outbound Flight had taken place.
They brought him in behind Yukio, when Plex told them the preliminary codes checked out.
There are some very preliminary studies questioning whether polyunsaturated fats might be linked to the onset of certain cancers.
At the start of the preliminary stage, cargo starships delivered thirty-five dumpers into low orbit: squat, conical, atmospheric-entry craft, packed full of heavy machinery, supplies, fuel, ground vehicles, and the prefabricated sections of runway.
The science was new at the time, but the Soviets had pushed through the preliminary testing and gone straight to a fully mounted pulsor on a vessel.
French organization of ten trawlers set out from Malta to make a preliminary reconnoissance around Corfu, to drag for mines and to clear out the submarines.