prime

CEFRC1

/pɹaɪ̯m/

adjective · noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Of the best quality or most important.

  2. 02

    noun

    A number greater than one that can be divided only by one and itself.

Examples

  • If I were prime minister, I'd give Clinton a good talking to.

  • My prime concern is to protect my property.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
3
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /pɹiːm/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. First in excellence, quality, or value.

  2. First in time, order, or sequence.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To prepare something for use or action.

More examples

In context

  • Of course it's difficult to gain access to the Prime Minister.

  • Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals.

  • Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The steak was cut from a blank piece of beef for the dinner.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English prime, from Old French prime and its etymon, Latin prīmus (“first”), from earlier prīsmos < *prīsemos < Proto-Italic *priisemos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“beyond, before”). Doublet of primo and primus. The noun sense "apostrophe-like symbol" originates from the fact that the symbol ′ was originally a superscript Roman numeral one.