priority

/praɪˈɒr.ɪ.ti/

/-ˈɔːr.ə.t̬i/

Definition

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). Mending the lights 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).Order and sequenceSimultaneous and consecutiveImportant and essential thingsInformation and messages

(Definition of priority noun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

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