Prior vs Prime - What's the difference?
prior | prime |
Of that which comes before, in advance.
former, previous
A high-ranking member of a monastery, usually lower in rank than an abbot.
* 1939 , (Raymond Chandler), The Big Sleep , Penguin 2011, p. 53:
(statistics) In Bayesian inference, a prior probability distribution.
First in importance, degree, or rank.
First in time, order, or sequence
* Tennyson
* Milton
First in excellence, quality, or value.
(mathematics, lay) Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).
(mathematics, technical) Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
(mathematics) Having its complement closed under multiplication: said only of ideals.
Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
Early; blooming; being in the first stage.
* Milton
(obsolete) Lecherous; lustful; lewd.
(Christianity, historical) One of the daily offices of prayer of the Western Church, associated with the early morning (typically 6 a.m.).
* Spenser
(obsolete) The early morning.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , I.vi:
The earliest stage of something.
* Hooker
* Waller
The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.
* Eustace
* Dryden
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 29, author=Nathan Rabin
, title= * 1965 , (Bob Dylan), (Like a Rolling Stone)
The chief or best individual or part.
* Jonathan Swift
(music) The first note or tone of a musical scale.
(fencing) The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
(algebra, number theory) A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= (card games) A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
(backgammon) Six consecutive blocks, which prevent the opponent's pieces from passing.
The symbol
(chemistry, obsolete) Any number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1.
An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
To prepare a mechanism for its main work.
To apply a coat of primer paint to.
(obsolete) To be renewed.
* Quarles
To serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
(of a steam boiler) To work so that foaming occurs from too violent ebullition, which causes water to become mixed with, and be carried along with, the steam that is formed.
To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
To prepare; to make ready; to instruct beforehand; to coach.
(UK, dialect, obsolete) To trim or prune.
(math) To mark with a prime mark.
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As a noun prior
is prior (high-ranking member of a monastery).As a verb prime is
.prior
English
Adjective
(-)- I had no prior knowledge you were coming.
- 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 alsoDerived terms
* prior toNoun
(wikipedia prior) (en noun)- ‘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.’
prime
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) prime, from (etyl) .Adjective
(-)- Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.
- Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.
- prime forests
- She was not the prime cause, but I myself.
- This is a prime location for a bookstore.
- Thirteen is a prime number.
- His starry helm, unbuckled, showed him prime / In manhood where youth ended.
- (Shakespeare)
Synonyms
* greatest, most important, main, primary, principal, top * excellent, top quality * earliest, first, original * (having no nontrivial factors) indivisible * (dividing a factor of any product it divides) *Noun
(en noun)- Early and late it rung, at evening and at prime .
- They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Prime
- in the very prime of the world
- Hope waits upon the flowery prime .
- cut off in their prime
- the prime of youth
TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992), passage=And it’s daunting because each segment has to tell a full, complete story in something like six minutes while doing justice to revered source material and including the non-stop laughs and genius gags that characterized The Simpsons in its god-like prime .}}
- Once upon a time you dressed so fine. You threw the bums a dime in your prime , didn’t you?
- Give him always of the prime .
Sarah Glaz
Ode to Prime Numbers, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’' cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving ' primes .}}
Synonyms
* bloom, blossom, efflorescence, flower, flush, heyday, peak * (chief or best individual or part) choice, prize, quality, select * prime number (when an integer)Derived terms
(algebra) * cousin prime * primality * prime constellation * prime number * sexy prime * twin primeEtymology 2
Origin uncertain; perhaps related to primage.Verb
(prim)- You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.
- I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.
- Night's bashful empress, though she often wane, / As oft repeats her darkness, primes again.
- to prime a witness
- The boys are primed for mischief.
- (Thackeray)
- to prime trees
