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Showing results for primary qualities. Search instead for unique qualities.

primary qualities

British  

plural noun

  1. (in empiricist philosophy) those properties of objects that are directly known by experience, such as size, shape, and number

"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.

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

It is to man what impenetrability, with the other primary qualities, is to matter.

From Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 3 (of 3) by Parker, Theodore

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)

Some primary qualities of his genius are pretty evenly balanced by some primary faults. 

From Views and Reviews Essays in appreciation by Henley, William Ernest

But if this be true, the use of the term 'look' or 'appear' in connexion with colour involves a difficulty which does not arise when it is used in connexion with the primary qualities.

From Kant's Theory of Knowledge by Prichard, Harold Arthur