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"
the act or process of drawing up plans or layouts for some project or enterprise
an act of formulating a program for a definite course of action; "the planning was more fun than the trip itself"
the cognitive process of thinking about what you will do in the event of something happening; "his planning for retirement was hindered by several uncertainties"
care by procedures or applications that are intended to relieve illness or injury
the management of someone or something; "the handling of prisoners"; "the treatment of water sewage"; "the right to equal treatment in the criminal justice system"
a manner of dealing with something artistically; "his treatment of space borrows from Italian architecture"
the musical interval between one note and another three notes away from it; "a simple harmony written in major thirds"
following the second position in an ordering or series; "a distant third"; "he answered the first question willingly, the second reluctantly, and the third with resentment"
coming next after the second and just before the fourth in position
in the third place; "third we must consider unemployment"
the musical interval between one note and another four notes away from it
following the third position; number four in a countable series
coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude; "the quaternary period of geologic time extends from the end of the tertiary period to the present"