prioritynoun [ C or U ]
uk/praɪˈɒr.ə.ti/us/praɪˈɔːr.ə.t̬i/B2 something that is very important and must be dealt with before other things:
The management did not seem to consider office safety to be a priority.
My first/top priority is to find somewhere to live.
You have to learn to get your priorities right/straight (= decide which are the most important jobs or problems and deal with them first).
Repairing the plumbing is a priority task (= more important than other jobs).
Banks normally give priority to large businesses when deciding on loans (= they deal with them first because they consider them most important).
Official business requirements obviously take/have priority over personal requests (= official business matters will be dealt with first).
More examples
- We need to establish a new set of priorities.
- You need to identify your priorities.
- a low priority task
- If agriculture were given priority, the country would easily be able to feed itself.
- The establishment of new areas of employment is a priority.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Order and sequence - general words
- alphabetize
- back end
- back end
- be a chapter of accidents idiom
- catalogue
- ladder
- litany
- merry-go-round
- next
- nth
- penultimate
- run
- running
- second 1
- series
- succession
- thirdly
- timeline
- train
- vice versa
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Important and essential things