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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

prior.

ancestors (pl.), forefathers, predecessors, people of an earlier time; superior/elder monk; (later) second in dignity to abbot/head of priory, prior;

5 characters1 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

adj[ˈpri.ɔr]Classical-Latin[ˈpriː.or]
  1. former, prior, previous, earlier (preceding in time)

    comparative · declension-3
    priore anno
    priore aestate
  2. the first, the original

    comparative · declension-3
  3. in front

    comparative · declension-3
  4. better, superior

    comparative · declension-3 · figuratively
  5. abbot, prior

    Medieval-Latin · comparative · declension-3 · substantive
Where this word comes from

From Proto-Italic *priōs, from earlier *prijōs, from *pri + *-jōs, thus the comparative degree of Old Latin *pri (“before”), from Proto-Italic *pri from Proto-Indo-European *préy (“before”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.