Let H be a subgroup of a group G (all groups considered throughout this article are finite); then H will be called primitive if the subgroup

is distinct from H. Such subgroups, which are also called meet-irreducible, arise naturally in connection with minimal permutation representations of groups and in other contexts; for example, every subgroup of a group G can be written as an intersection of primitive subgroups of G, and the set of all primitive subgroups of G is characterized by its minimality with respect to this property. While maximal subgroups are always primitive, most groups contain non-maximal subgroups which are primitive (see remark at end of article). Note that a subgroup H of an abelian group G is primitive if, and only if, G/H is cyclic of prime-power order.