1. actions or events that happen before and prepare for something more important
Usage: plural form of preliminary

Examples

• After the preliminaries were completed, the main ceremony began.
• The boxing preliminaries featured several exciting matches before the championship bout.
• We need to get through all the preliminaries before we can start the actual negotiation.
• The conference preliminaries included registration and welcome speeches.
• Once we finish these preliminaries, we can move on to the real work.
• The legal preliminaries took longer than expected.