Meaning & use
front of mind
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Meaning
phrasefixed phraseinformal
Easy to remember because it is something a person is thinking about or being reminded of often.
Grammar: Usually follows be, stay or keep: keep safety front of mind.
Patterns
- be front of mind
- keep something front of mind
- stay front of mind for someone
After the accident, safety is front of mind for everyone on site.
Brands want to stay front of mind when customers go shopping.
With exams next week, studying is front of mind for her.
Common combinations
- keep something front of mind
- Keep the customer front of mind when you design the form.
- stay front of mind
- Regular emails help us stay front of mind.
- remain front of mind
- Costs remain front of mind for the board.
- be front of mind for someone
- Price is front of mind for most shoppers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- top of mind
- Top of mind means almost the same and is more frequent in American English.
- uppermost
- Uppermost is more formal and is usually used before a noun: uppermost in her thoughts.
- in the forefront
- In the forefront is slightly more formal and often describes public attention rather than a personal thought.
Opposites
Word family
- mindful adjective
- aware of something
- mind noun
- the place where thoughts happen
- top of mind phrase
- a close variant
Commonly confused: front of mind or out of mind?
front of mind vs out of mind
Out of mind means forgotten, so it is the opposite of front of mind.
Practice
The manager asked the team to keep customer safety ____ while planning.
Choose one answer.
Keep something front of mind means keep thinking about it. The other options are not set phrases and do not express this idea.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “front of mind”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.