priority

Academic Word List, sublist 7.

About 17.33 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. noun An item's relative importance.

   He set his e-mail message's priority to high.

2. noun A goal of a person or an organisation.

   She needs to get her priorities straight and stop playing games.

3. noun The quality of being earlier or coming first compared to another thing; the state of being prior.

   In bankruptcy law, a business' debt to its employees has priority over its debt to a landlord, so the employees must be paid first.

4. noun A superior claim to use by virtue of being validly published at an earlier date.
5. noun Precedence; superior rank.
6. noun Right of way; The right to pass (an intersection) before other road users.

Similar words

precedency precedence anteriority antecedence antecedency prioritized important primacy primarily imperative

Often followed by

of to in over for is and on was

Word family

priorities prioritisation prioritise prioritised prioritises prioritising prioritization prioritize prioritized prioritizes