Meaning & use
prior
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Coming earlier in time than something else, or having happened already.
Grammar: It stands before a noun: prior experience, a prior engagement.
Patterns
- prior knowledge
- prior notice
- prior approval
The job requires no prior experience.
I have a prior commitment on Friday evening.
Visitors must give prior notice before entering the lab.
adjectivebefore a nounformalrare
More important or more urgent than other things.
Grammar: Rare and formal; used for claims or obligations that outrank others.
A prior claim on the property settled the dispute.
The nurse's prior duty was to the patient in the emergency room.
Her prior obligation to her family shaped every decision.
nouncountableinformalAmerican
A person's earlier criminal conviction, in informal use.
Grammar: Usually plural in speech: he has two priors.
The suspect already had two priors for theft.
With no priors on his record, he received a lighter sentence.
The judge asked whether the defendant had any priors.
Common combinations
- prior to
- Please arrive at least ten minutes prior to the start.
- prior knowledge
- The course assumes some prior knowledge of algebra.
- prior experience
- Prior experience in sales is helpful.
- without prior notice
- The store closed without prior notice.
- prior engagement
- I'm sorry, I have a prior engagement that night.
Synonyms and how they differ
- previous
- Previous is the everyday word and can describe the most recent one, whereas prior sounds more formal and stresses earlier time.
- earlier
- Earlier is plain and neutral, while prior feels official, as in notices and forms.
- former
- Former usually refers to a past role or state, as in a former president, not a time before an event.
- preceding
- Preceding means right before something in a sequence, which is narrower than prior.
Opposites
Word family
- priority noun
- something treated as more important than others
- prioritize verb
- to treat as more important
- priorly adverb
- rare; earlier, previously
- priory noun
- a religious house, which comes from a different meaning of prior
Commonly confused: prior or prier?
prior vs prier
A prier is someone who pries into other people's business, unrelated to the time sense of prior.
Practice
Which sentence uses prior correctly?
Choose one answer.
Prior to is the set phrase meaning before, and it fits an arrival time. The other options lack to or misuse prior as a noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “prior”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.