Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1600-1700
Language: French
Origin: préliminaire, from Medieval Latin praeliminaris, from Latin limen 'threshold'

preliminary

1 adjective
     
pre‧lim‧i‧na‧ry1 [only before noun]
happening before something that is more important, often in order to prepare for it:
the preliminary stages of the competition
a preliminary draft
preliminary to
The discussions were preliminary to preparing a policy paper.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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