preliminarily.

At an initial stage before fuller work, assessment or confirmation.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• preliminarily assess
• preliminarily classify

On the page

The material was preliminarily classified before the detailed tests began.

The office preliminarily assessed the claim without treating the early view as a final decision.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Invariable adverb; use more or most only where natural. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: effect assessment, evidence qualification, conditional reasoning, method comparison. Disciplines: argumentation, research interpretation, analytical writing. Commonness: uncommon.