prime
/pɹaɪ̯m/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.81 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
First in importance, degree, or rank.
adj
First in excellence, quality, or value.
adj
Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
adj
adj
Such that the annihilator of any nonzero submodule is equal to the annihilator of the whole module.
adj
Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
Example Sentences
- "Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe."
- "Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals."
- "I thought it lawful from my forme act, / And the ſame end ; ſtill watching to oppreſs / Iſrael’s oppreſſours : of what now I ſuffer / She was not the prime cauſe, but I my ſelf, / Who vanquiſht with a peal of words (O weakneſs !) / Gave up my fort of ſilence to a Woman."
- "Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump / A league of street in summer solstice down, / Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman."
- "The process of recording a transaction in the accounts begins with an entry in what is termed a book of prime entry."
- "This is a prime location for a bookstore."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *per-, prime, prīmus, *priisemos