Priority

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /pɹaɪˈɒɹɪti/

Origin

From Old French priorite, from Latin prioritas.

Full definition of priority

Noun

1. An item's relative importance.He set his e-mail message's priority to high.
2. A goal of a person or an organisation.She needs to get her priorities straight and stop playing games.
3. (taxonomy, of a name) A superior claim to use by virtue of being validly published at an earlier date.
• Schuster Hepaticae V|viiiNeither 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."
4. (obsolete) Precedence; superior rank.
• 1608, William Shakespeare, , I. i. 244:Follow Cominius. We must follow you.
  Right worthy you priority.

Derived terms