Primary or primaries may refer to:

Arts, entertainment, and media

Music

Groups and labels

* Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label

Works

* ''Primary'' (album) by Rubicon (2002) * "Primary" (song) by The Cure * "Primary", song by Spoon from the album '' Telephono''

Other uses in arts, entertainment, and media

* Primaries or primary beams, in E. E. Smith's science-fiction series '' Lensman'' * ''Primary'' (film), American political documentary (1960)

Computing

* PRIMARY, an X Window selection * Primary data storage, computer technology used to retain digital data * Primary server, main server on the server farm

Education

Primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

, the first stage of compulsory education * Primary FRCA, academic examination for anaesthetists in the U.K. *

Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, school providing primary education

Mathematics

* ''p''-group of prime power order *

Primary decomposition In mathematics, the Lasker–Noether theorem states that every Noetherian ring is a Lasker ring, which means that every ideal can be decomposed as an intersection, called primary decomposition, of finitely many ''primary ideals'' (which are related ...

into primary ideals *

Primary ideal In mathematics, specifically commutative algebra, a proper ideal ''Q'' of a commutative ring ''A'' is said to be primary if whenever ''xy'' is an element of ''Q'' then ''x'' or ''y'n'' is also an element of ''Q'', for some ''n'' > 0. ...

s, concept in commutative algebra * Primary number, positive integer power of a prime number

Politics

* Primary elections or primaries, elections held to determine which candidates will run for an upcoming general election * Primary vote, the total of first-preference votes in the Australian electoral system

Science and mechanics

Primary (astronomy) A primary bodyalso called a central body, host body, gravitational primary, or simply primaryis the main physical body of a gravitationally bound, multi-object system. This object constitutes most of that system's mass and will generally be loca ...

, the larger of two co-orbiting bodies *

Primary (chemistry) Primary is a term used in organic chemistry to classify various types of compounds (e.g. alcohols, alkyl halides, amines) or reactive intermediates (e.g. alkyl radicals, carbocations). {{clear See also * Secondary (chemistry) * Tertiary (che ...

, term used in organic chemistry * Primary, the oldest period in the

Geologic time scale The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochro ...

(obsolete), combining the

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

and

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

* Primary, a stage in a thermonuclear explosive *

Primary circuit In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

, electrical circuit in a transformer that receives current, as opposed to secondary circuit *

Primary field In theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in co ...

, type of field in conformal field theory *

Primary mirror A primary mirror (or primary) is the principal light-gathering surface (the objective) of a reflecting telescope. Description The primary mirror of a reflecting telescope is a spherical, parabolic, or hyperbolic shaped disks of polished ...

, principal light-gathering surface of a reflecting telescope * Primary

power line An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and Electric power distribution, distribution to transmit electrical energy along large distances. It consists of one or more electrical conductor, conductors (commonly mu ...

, electric power transmission line fed to or from a transformer * Primary feathers, flight feathers attached to the manus ("hand") in the wings of birds *

Primary color Primary colors are colorants or colored lights that can be mixed in varying amounts to produce a gamut of colors. This is the essential method used to create the perception of a broad range of colors in, e.g., electronic displays, color prin ...

Other uses

* Primary (LDS Church), a children's Sunday School organization * Primary (musician) (born 1983), South Korean * Primary data (or raw data), a term for data collected from a source * Primary Flight Training, in the U.S. Navy *

Primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...

, original materials * Primary

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that adversely affects the structure or function (biology), function of all or part of an organism and is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical condi ...

, a disease that is due to a root cause of illness * Christian Science practitioner#Primary class instruction