prioritize
verb
Simple meaning
To decide what is most important and do it first.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pryawruhtyzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹaɪˈɔɹətaɪz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To value, do, or choose something first, or before other things.
transitiveintransitive
To arrange or list a group of things in order of priority or importance.
Assign a priority to
“We have too many things to do and must prioritize.”
transitive
To rank something as having high priority.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To value, do, or choose something first, or before other things.
Used this way, prioritize is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prioritize
- “We have too many things to do and must prioritize.”verb
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.