primary qualities
Britishplural noun
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.
This bus has primary qualities of solidity and space occupancy that exist independently of our perceptual machinery and that can do us injury.
From Scientific American • Aug. 27, 2019
These games are all exactly the same in their primary qualities: the first of them that was invented had all the faults of all its successors.
From Wings and the Child or, the Building of Magic Cities by Nesbit, E. (Edith)
If living characters, perfect plot construction, imaginative breadth of canvas and absolute truth to life are the primary qualities of great realistic fiction, Mr. Phillpotts is one of the greatest novelists of the day....
From Margarita's Soul The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty by Williams, J. Scott (John Scott)
Even the primary qualities are undergoing the same fate.
From Essays in Radical Empiricism by James, William
Berkeley was the first thinker clearly to perceive the unsubstantial nature of a world made up solely of primary qualities.
From International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume I Philosophy and Metaphysics by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.