as in preliminary
coming before the main part or item usually to introduce or prepare for what follows
a preparatory investigation to see if there is enough evidence to warrant bringing charges
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Recent Examples of preparatory
Those preparatory projects included the installation of new capping roofs to weatherproof the buildings for a long period of care and maintenance, as well as the rerouting of electrical supplies and de-planting of boiler equipment.
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Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 8 Oct. 2025
These are showcased alongside engravers’ prints and unpublished documents, such as preparatory Polaroids and test prints annotated by Avedon.
—Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 30 Sep. 2025
These preparatory movements then become habits that are carried out in a weaker form even when the action is suppressed.
—Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
Ursuline Academy advertises itself as an all-girls Catholic college preparatory high school founded in 1896.
—Matthew Cupelli, Cincinnati Enquirer, 20 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for preparatory
Recent Examples of Synonyms for preparatory
Adjective
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Ultimately, the appeals court affirmed the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction to Hecox, but vacated the injunction applied to the rest of the state.—
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He’s scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on Monday.—
Adjective
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Episodes are bound together by banal introductory voiceover, in which our narrator recites ominous clichés that, like everything in His & Hers, border on parody.—
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So, with the support of the school for developing an introductory class on archaeology, Harris-Thacker developed one.—
Cite this Entry
“Preparatory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/preparatory. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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