pri·or·i·ty / prīˈôrətē/ • n. (pl. -ties) a thing that is regarded as more important than another: housework didn't figure high on her list of priorities. ∎  the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important: the safety of the country takes priority over any other matter. ∎  the right to take precedence or to proceed before others: priority is given to those with press passes | [as adj.] clear the left lane for priority traffic.

priority Relative importance or urgency. Priority is the quality of having precedence, i.e. requiring early attention, and can be quantified by numerical value, which is used to determine the order in which several requests for a resource are satisfied. In the situation where several otherwise identical processes are free to run, the one with the highest priority will be run next, hence the term priority processing. A priority interrupt in a system will be dealt with ahead of standard interrupts that may be awaiting a response. In data transmission a field is allocated to the holding of a code that indicates the relative urgency of the associated message. See also interrupt priority, interrupt I/O.