Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell primary

hear itpri·ma·ry/'praɪmɛri/adjectiveSilent and tricky

What it means: Main or most important.

In a sentence: The primary color of the sky is blue.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as primery or primarry.

How learners on Spelling.School have misspelled it: zzz

Same family: prime, primitive, primarily, primate, primary-election. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Primary comes from the Latin word *primarius*, meaning “of the first rank” or “chief,” which itself comes from *primus*, meaning “first.” In politics, a “primary” is literally the first round of choosing who will move on to the main election.

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.