Glavni

Glavni is an adjective used in several South Slavic languages, including Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Slovenian. It means main, chief, principal, or head. The form changes to agree with the noun it modifies in gender, number, and case (for example, masculine singular glavni, feminine singular glavna, neuter singular glavno; plural forms vary by gender and grammatical case).

In everyday usage, glavni appears in common compound phrases that denote primacy or central importance. Examples include glavni grad, meaning the capital city; glavni ured, meaning the head office; and glavni cilj, meaning the main objective. The feminine form hlavna is used with feminine nouns, as in glavna zadaća (the main task).

Etymology and cognates: glavni derives from a Slavic root related to the word for head, often traced to Proto-Slavic *glavъ. It has cognates in related languages, such as Russian glavny (главный) and Ukrainian holovnyy (головний), which carry a similar meaning of primary or chief.

Usage notes: as with other adjectives, glavni typically precedes the noun it modifies in Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Slovenian. It can also function in administrative or formal contexts to designate principal units, offices, or roles within organizations, governments, or geographic descriptions.

In summary, glavni is a foundational term across Slavic languages for denoting primacy or central importance, with flexible gendered and case-dependent forms to match the nouns it describes.