Meaning & use
high-priority
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Meaning
adjectivebefore a noun
needing to be dealt with first because it is very important
Grammar: Used before a noun: a high-priority email. Not usually used after a verb; say 'This email is a high priority' instead.
Patterns
- a high-priority task
- a high-priority item
- a high-priority case
Please mark this as a high-priority task.
The hospital treats high-priority cases first.
We have several high-priority items on today's list.
Common combinations
- high-priority task
- Finishing the report is a high-priority task for this week.
- high-priority item
- The broken printer is a high-priority item for the office manager.
- high-priority case
- The judge listed it as a high-priority case.
- high-priority email
- She flagged the message as a high-priority email.
Synonyms and how they differ
- urgent
- Focuses on needing quick action; high-priority focuses on importance or rank in a list.
- important
- A general word; high-priority suggests it comes before other things in order of importance.
- top-priority
- Means the very highest priority; high-priority can mean one of several important things.
Opposites
Word family
- priority noun
- Something that is more important than other things and should be done first.
- prioritize verb
- To decide which things are most important and deal with them first.
Commonly confused: high-priority or high priority?
high-priority vs high priority
High priority is a noun phrase: 'This is a high priority.' High-priority is an adjective used before a noun: 'a high-priority task.'
Practice
Which sentence uses 'high-priority' correctly?
Choose one answer.
High-priority is an adjective that goes before a noun, so 'a high-priority job' is correct. Option A uses it after 'is' like a predicate adjective, which is less standard; C has wrong word order; D uses it as a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “high-priority”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.