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Priority vs Prior - What's the difference?

priority | prior |

As nouns the difference between priority and prior

is that priority is an item's relative importance while prior is a high-ranking member of a monastery, usually lower in rank than an abbot.

As an adjective prior is

of that which comes before, in advance.

As an adverb prior is

previously.

priority

English

(wikipedia priority)

Noun

(priorities)
  • An item's relative importance.
    • He set his e-mail message's priority to high.
  • A goal of a person or an organisation.
    • She needs to get her priorities straight and stop playing games.
  • (taxonomy, of a name) A superior claim to use by virtue of being validly published at an earlier date.
  • *
    • Neither [Jones] nor I (in 1966) could conceive of reducing our "science" to the ultimate absurdity of reading Finnish newspapers almost a century and a half old in order to establish "priority ."
  • (obsolete) Precedence; superior rank.
  • * 1608 , , I. i. 244:
    • Follow Cominius. We must follow you. / Right worthy you priority.

    Derived terms

    * aperture priority * prioritise / prioritize * prioritization * shutter priority * top priority

    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.