Meaning & use
prioritize
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To decide which things are most important and deal with them before the others.
Grammar: Usually takes an object: prioritize tasks; can stand alone: you must learn to prioritize.
Patterns
- prioritize something
- prioritize something over something
You need to prioritize your homework before the weekend.
The team prioritized urgent bug fixes this week.
I learned to prioritize when I started two jobs.
verbtransitive
To treat something as more important than other things and give it greater attention or resources.
Grammar: Takes an object, often with over: prioritize safety over speed.
Patterns
- prioritize something over something
The city decided to prioritize public transport over new roads.
She prioritizes sleep during exam weeks.
The hospital prioritizes patients with the most serious symptoms.
Word forms
| third person singular | prioritizes |
|---|---|
| past tense | prioritized |
| past participle | prioritized |
| -ing form | prioritizing |
Common combinations
- prioritize tasks
- A good manager knows how to prioritize tasks.
- prioritize safety
- The factory must prioritize safety above profit.
- prioritize over
- Don't prioritize email over real conversations.
- prioritize your health
- After the scare, he began to prioritize his health.
- learn to prioritize
- New students need to learn to prioritize.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rank
- Rank means to put things in order of position or quality, while prioritize focuses on what to do first.
- emphasize
- Emphasize means to stress something in speech or writing, not to act on it first.
- put first
- Put first is a plain, informal phrase for the same idea.
- triage
- Triage is a medical term for sorting by urgency, and is stricter than everyday prioritizing.
Opposites
Word family
- priority noun
- something regarded as most important
- prioritization noun
- the act of ordering by importance
- prior adjective
- coming before
- deprioritize verb
- to treat as less important
Commonly confused: prioritize or prioritise?
prioritize vs prioritise
Prioritise is the British spelling of the same verb.
Practice
With three deadlines this week, you will have to ___ and do the most urgent one first.
Choose one answer.
Prioritize means to put tasks in order of importance, which fits choosing the most urgent first. Procrastinate means delaying, the opposite of the sense here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “prioritize”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.