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Synonyms

preliminaries

British  
/ prɪˈlɪmɪnərɪz /

plural noun

  1. the full word for prelims

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Earlier, during the preliminaries, someone had led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance—first to the American flag, then to the state of Texas.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

Aside from the bartender, there was only one person actually braving the record-breaking 110-degree heat on the roof and watching UFC preliminaries on the wall-mounted TV: a gregarious, stocky, bespectacled older man named Mike.

From Slate • Oct. 31, 2024

After a successful debut at Tokyo 2020, the skateboarding got under way in Paris with Britons Sky Brown and Lola Tambling competing in the women's park preliminaries.

From BBC • Aug. 6, 2024

Specifically, maybe check out the preliminaries of the 100 meters at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday and the finals around 11:10 a.m. on Saturday.

From Seattle Times • May 21, 2024

And rituals help too: door locking, tidying up, cleaning teeth, arranging hair, but they are preliminaries to the truly necessary things.

From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison

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