preliminary round
First competitive stage
A preliminary round is an early stage of a competition that narrows the field before the main event.
Teams or contestants must advance through preliminary rounds to reach semifinals, finals, or championship play: They were eliminated in the preliminary round.
Often shortened to prelims.
- qualifierWord or phrase limiting meaning
- openingGap or start
- group stageTournament's initial round-robin
- heatTransferred thermal energy
- tryoutCompetitive evaluation for selection
audition · trial run · elimination · early exit · seeding · seeded player · making the cut · warmup · knockout · bracket · wild card · quarterfinal · early · stage · competition · tournament · playoff · contender
- track and fieldtrack and field, sprinters, sprinter, sprinting, sprint
- pageantsbeauty pageant, beauty pageants, beauty queen, beauty queens, contestant
- playoffsbracket, brackets, elimination, playoff bracket, playoff game
- talent competitionstalent show, talent shows, auditions, judges panel, golden buzzer
- tournament roundsqualifier, quarterfinals, semifinals, finals, playoff game
- tournament termsbracket, playoff bracket, semifinals, quarterfinals, finals
competition stage
preliminary roundfinal
Last and decisive
finals · championship match · final round · grand final · title match
preliminary, round, prelim, preliminaries, rounds, rounded, rounding, rounder, roundest