PRELIMINARY in a Sentence

Learn PRELIMINARY from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For PRELIMINARY, below is one of 36 sentences:
In order to circumvent the enemy, we will make two preliminary attacks in other sections before starting our major campaign.

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 Meanings and Examples of PRELIMINARY
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
preliminary
 a.  prior to or preparing for the main matter; introductory
 n.  an action or event preceding or preparing for something more important
Classic Sentence: (30 in 3 pages)
1  She rose hastily, without her usual preliminary burrowings and stretchings, and went to the window, hoping to see some neighbor's face, some heartening sight.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XX
2  The musicians after preliminary tunings and whangings broke into "Old Dan Tucker" and Tommy turned to her.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXV
3  Regina's would enable her, when Mrs. Peniston's legacy was paid, to realize the vision of the green-and-white shop with the fuller competence acquired by her preliminary training.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 10
4  But to Lily herself, aware that the legacy could not be put to such a use, the preliminary training seemed a wasted effort.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 10
5  At the preliminary examination, it developed that he had been a suitor of the girl's.
Southern Horrors By Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Context  Highlight   In VII
6  The preliminary stage of becoming acquainted was one which he always endeavored to ignore when a pretty and engaging woman was concerned.
The Awakening By Kate Chopin
Context  Highlight   In XXV
7  Marija goes on the warpath straight off, without even the preliminary of a good cursing, and when she is pulled off it is with the coat collars of two villains in her hands.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 1
8  And then, after a few preliminary tries, the whole farm burst out into 'Beasts of England' in tremendous unison.
Animal Farm By George Orwell
Context  Highlight   In Chapter I
9  As if a rook had hopped unseen to a prominent bald branch, he touched his collar and hemmed his preliminary croak.
Between the Acts By Virginia Woolf
Context  Highlight   In Unit 11
10  Then there was a scuffle behind the bush; a preliminary premonitory scratching.
Between the Acts By Virginia Woolf
Context  Highlight   In Unit 11
11  Well, every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for Eyford.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER’S THUMB
12  This brutal preliminary seemed to shadow forth some strange and inexplicable horror in the background.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In II. The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
13  Besides this preliminary outlay, he must be prepared to keep himself for some years, and to hire a presentable carriage and horse.
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes By Arthur Conan Doyle
Context  Highlight   In IX. The Adventure of The Resident Patient
14  I fear, my friend, that I shall render myself tedious by dwelling on these preliminary circumstances; but they were days of comparative happiness, and I think of them with pleasure.
Frankenstein By Mary Shelley
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 7
15  By this time the preliminary prayer had been offered in the meeting-house, and the accents of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale were heard commencing his discourse.
The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Context  Highlight   In XXII. THE PROCESSION
Example Sentence:
1  The system has previously undergone six months of preliminary tests in the same Redwood City neighborhood, with officers firing blanks.
2  UN official reports supported the preliminary findings that the plane was brought down by a missile.
3  The discussions were preliminary to preparing a policy paper.
4  The civil liberties group is seeking a preliminary injunction barring Republican Gov.
5  According to preliminary, unofficial figures, a large majority, some 84 percent, voted in favor.
6  In order to circumvent the enemy, we will make two preliminary attacks in other sections before starting our major campaign.