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Prior vs Null - What's the difference?

prior | null |

As nouns the difference between prior and null

is that prior is prior (high-ranking member of a monastery) while null is zero, nil; the cardinal number before einn.

prior

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Of that which comes before, in advance.
  • I had no prior knowledge you were coming.
  • former, previous
  • His prior residence was smaller than his current one.

    Usage notes

    The etymological antonym is (m) (from Latin) (compare (m)/(m) for “first/last”). This is now no longer used, however, and there is no corresponding antonym. Typically either (m) or (m) are used, but these form different pairs – (m)/(m) and (m)/(m) – and are more formal than prior . When an opposing pair is needed, these can be used, or other pairs such as (m)/(m) or (m)/(m).

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * prior to

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (colloquial) Previously.
  • The doctor had known three months prior .

    Noun

    (wikipedia prior) (en noun)
  • A high-ranking member of a monastery, usually lower in rank than an abbot.
  • * 1939 , (Raymond Chandler), The Big Sleep , Penguin 2011, p. 53:
  • ‘And a little later we get the routine report on his prints from Washington, and he's got a prior back in Indiana, attempted hold-up six years ago.’
  • (statistics) In Bayesian inference, a prior probability distribution.
  • null

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A non-existent or empty value or set of values.
  • Zero]] quantity of [[expression, expressions; nothing.
  • (Francis Bacon)
  • Something that has no force or meaning.
  • (computing) the ASCII or Unicode character (), represented by a zero value, that indicates no character and is sometimes used as a string terminator.
  • (computing) the attribute of an entity that has no valid value.
  • Since no date of birth was entered for the patient, his age is null .
  • One of the beads in nulled work.
  • (statistics) null hypothesis
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having no validity, "null and void"
  • insignificant
  • * 1924 , Marcel Proust, Within a Budding Grove :
  • In proportion as we descend the social scale our snobbishness fastens on to mere nothings which are perhaps no more null than the distinctions observed by the aristocracy, but, being more obscure, more peculiar to the individual, take us more by surprise.
  • absent or non-existent
  • (mathematics) of the null set
  • (mathematics) of or comprising a value of precisely zero
  • (genetics, of a mutation) causing a complete loss of gene function, amorphic.
  • Derived terms

    * nullity

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to nullify; to annul
  • (Milton)

    See also

    * nil ----