priority

Plural: priorities

Noun

• The state of being more important or urgent than other things.
• status established in order of importance or urgency
  • "national independence takes priority over class struggle"
• preceding in time
• An item's relative importance.
• A goal of a person or an organisation.
• The quality of being earlier or coming first compared to another thing; the state of being prior.
• A superior claim to use by virtue of being validly published at an earlier date.
• Precedence; superior rank.
• Right of way; The right to pass (an intersection) before other road users.

Examples

• Creating a bingo has top priority when you have seven tiles that spell one.
• He set his e-mail message's priority to high.
• In bankruptcy law, a business' debt to its employees has priority over its debt to a landlord, so the employees must be paid first.
• She needs to get her priorities straight and stop playing games.

Synonyms

antecedence, antecedency, anteriority, precedence, precedency, dignity, eminence, seniority, superiority

Antonyms

posteriority