something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to employment"; "drinks were the overture to dinner"
a minor match preceding the main event
designed to orient or acquaint with a situation before proceeding; "a preliminary investigation"
a statement that is assumed to be true and from which a conclusion can be drawn; "on the assumption that he has been injured we can infer that he will not to play"
take something as preexisting and given
set forth beforehand, often as an explanation; "He premised these remarks so that his readers might understand"
a class of nouns or pronouns or adjectives in Indo-European languages having the same (or very similar) inflectional forms; "the first declension in Latin"
the inflection of nouns and pronouns and adjectives in Indo-European languages