priority

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priority

/pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/ UK
/pɹaɪˈɔɹɪtɪj/ British, Southern, Standard
/pɹaɪˈoɹəti/ Canada, US
[pɹaɪˈoɹəɾi] Canada, US
/pɹaɪˈɑɹəti/
[pɹaɪˈɑɹəɾi]
/pɹɑeˈɔɹəti/ Australia
[pɹɑe̯ˈɔɹəɾi] Australia
/pɹaɪˈɒɹəti/ New Zealand
[pɹɑe̯ˈɔ̟ɹəɾi] New Zealand
/pɾaɪˈɔɾɪte/ Scotland
/pɾaɪˈɒɾɪti/ Wales

Rhymes with -ɒɹɪti

Where it comes from

From Old French priorite, from Latin priōritās.

Surface analysis: prior + -ity.

noun priorities

countable, uncountable An item's relative importance. He set his e-mail message's priority to high.
countable, uncountable A goal of a person or an organisation. She needs to get her priorities straight and stop playing games.
countable, uncountable 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.
countable, uncountable, of a name A superior claim to use by virtue of being validly published at an earlier date. Neither [Jones][…] nor I (in 1966) could conceive of reducing our "science" to the ultimate absurdity of reading Finnish newspapers almost a century and a half old in order to establish "priority."
countable, uncountable Precedence; superior rank. Follow Cominius. We must follow you. / Right worthy you priority.
Similar: dignity, eminence, seniority, superiority
countable, uncountable Right of way; The right to pass (an intersection) before other road users.

Similar: anteriority · Opposite: disfocus

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: precedency, precedence, anteriority, antecedence, antecedency, prioritized, important, primacy, primarily, imperative, first, importance, principal, primary, significance, main

noun

Similar: anteriority · Opposite: disfocus

Translations

Every language

noun item's relative importance

Español	prioridad
한국어	우선 useon, 우선권 useon'gwon
日本語	優先 yūsen, 優先権 yūsenken
中文	優先權 /优先权 yōuxiānquán, 更重要的事 gèng zhòngyào de shì
हिन्दी	अग्रिमता agrimtā, प्राथमिकता prāthmiktā, वरीयता varīytā, पूर्वता pūrvatā
Português	prioridade, prioridades
Français	priorité
Deutsch	Priorität, Vorrang, Vorrangigkeit, größere Wichtigkeit
Italiano	priorità
Ελληνικά	προτεραιότητα proteraiótita
Română	prioritate, întâietate
Русский	приорите́т prioritét
Tiếng Việt	sự ưu tiên
العربية	أَوَّلَِيَّة ʔawwalaiyya, أَوْلَوِيَّة ʔawlawiyya

noun goal of a person or an organisation

Español	prioridad
中文	目的 mùdì
हिन्दी	अग्रिमता agrimtā
Português	prioridade, prioridades
Français	priorité
Deutsch	Priorität
Ελληνικά	προτεραιότητα proteraiótita
Română	prioritate
العربية	أَوَّلَِيَّة ʔawwalaiyya, أَوْلَوِيَّة ʔawlawiyya

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MLA

"priority." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/priority. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

priority. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/priority

Chicago

"priority." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/priority.

BibTeX

@misc{priority_2026,
  title = {priority},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/priority},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}