prime
Noun pluralprimes
Pluralprimes
- 1Most important, or higher than all others in rank.
Like the team captain, who matters most among the players.
Her prime concern was keeping the children safe.
He quickly became the prime suspect in the robbery.
UsageUsually comes before a noun: prime suspect, prime concern.
- 2Of the very best quality, value, or worth.
Like the ripest, sweetest fruit on the whole tree.
The butcher saved a prime cut of beef for his best customer.
They bought a house in a prime spot right next to the park.
UsageSay a prime location or a prime cut of meat.
Similarexcellent
Oppositeinferior, poor, second-rate
Note
- 3
- 4To make someone or something ready, sometimes by giving information or practice beforehand.
Like stretching before a race so your body is ready to go.
The coach primed the team for the championship game.
A good breakfast can prime your body for a busy day.
UsageSay prime someone for something, or be primed for it.
Similarprepare, brief, coach, ready
Note
- 5Describes a whole number greater than one that can be divided evenly only by itself and one.
Like a building block that can't be split into smaller equal groups.
Seven is a prime number because nothing divides it evenly except seven and one.
Students learned a quick trick to test whether a number is prime.
Oppositecomposite
Note
Less common meanings
- 6A whole number greater than one that can be divided evenly only by itself and one.
Like a building block number you cannot make by multiplying smaller numbers together.
The number seven is a prime, with no divisors besides one and itself.
Mathematicians have searched for ever larger primes for centuries.
Note
- 7To put a first coat of special paint on a surface before painting it.
Like putting down a base layer so the top color sticks better.
You should prime the wall before painting it a darker color.
They primed the metal railings to keep them from rusting.
Similarundercoat
- 8To fill or get the inside of a machine ready so it can start working.
Like filling a straw with juice before you can sip easily.
She primed the pump by pouring water into it first.
You need to prime the engine before starting it in cold weather.
UsageSay prime the pump or prime the engine.
- 9Earliest in time, or first in order or sequence.
Like the very first link that the whole chain hangs from.
Many believed there was a prime cause from which all others followed.
Longitude starts at zero on the prime meridian.
UsageMostly in set phrases like prime meridian and prime mover.
Similarfirst, original, earliest
Note
- 10A company or group that is the most important or top-ranked in its field.
Like the head chef in a kitchen who runs everything and tells the others what to do.
The big contract went to a prime that had built bridges for years.
Each prime hires smaller companies to help finish the work.
UsageOften said as the big primes.
Note
- 11Short form of prime lens: a camera lens that cannot zoom in or out.
The cinematographer fitted a fast prime to shoot the night scene.
She packed two primes and left the heavy zoom at home.
Note
- 12The mark ′ used in writing to show feet, minutes, or some math operations.
Like a little tick mark that changes what a letter or number means.
The teacher explained that a prime next to x marks its first derivative.
Put a prime after the number to show it is in feet.
- 13Marked with the small symbol ′, used to tell two similar things apart.
Like adding a little tick mark to a name so you know it's the new, changed one.
After the flip, point A becomes point A prime.
Write the new value as x prime so you don't mix it up with x.
UsageSay it after the letter: x prime.
- 14To put a small amount of powder or a primer in a gun so the main charge will fire.
Like lighting the small wick that sets off a bigger firework.
The soldiers had to prime their muskets before each shot.
He primed the old cannon carefully before the demonstration.
- 15Describing a number that, if it divides two numbers multiplied together, always divides one of them.
If a prime number divides a product, it always divides one of the factors.
Because 7 is prime, if it divides 6 times 35, it must divide 35.
Note
- 16The early morning hour after sunrise, or the church prayer service said at that time.
Like the very first hour after the sun comes up.
The monks met in the chapel for prime at sunrise.
His larum bell might lowd and wyde be hard, When cause requyrd, but neuer out of time; Early and late it rong, at euening and at prime.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie QueeneHere, prime means early morning, the first hour after sunrise.UsageUsually no a or the: they met for prime.
Note
- 17To add a small ′ mark to a letter or number.
Like putting a little check next to a word so you know it's the new one.
Prime the variable so readers know it has changed.
Mathematicians often prime a symbol to show its new value.
- 18In algebra, describing an ideal where multiplying any two outside members always gives another outside member.
Elements outside a prime ideal always multiply to give elements outside it.
Students learn to check whether a given ideal is prime.
Note
- 19In higher algebra, describing a module where each nonzero part is sent to zero by the same elements as the whole.
In a prime module, every nonzero submodule has the same annihilator.
The professor asked whether the module was prime.
Note
- 20The best or most important person or part of a group.
Give him always of the prime; And but a little at a time.
1726, Jonathan Swift, “To a Lady, who desired the author to write some verses upon her in the heroic style” in The Works of Dr. Jonathan… - 21In an early, fresh stage of growth or development.
- 22A word or image that quietly changes how someone reacts to something soon after.
- 23The first and lowest note that a musical scale begins on.
- 24A short sprint partway through a bike race that gives a prize or points to the winner.
- 25In fencing, the first guard, with the hand held high and the blade pointing down across the body.
- 26In backgammon, a row of blocked points in a line that stops the other player's pieces from getting past.
- 27In the old card game primero, a hand of four cards with one card from each suit.
- 28Wanting sex very much.
- 29The first part of the day.
- 30The very beginning of something, when it has just started.
To this end we see how quickly sundry artes Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world.
1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie - 31An old chemistry number for the weight of an element that joins or replaces one part of hydrogen.
- 32An inch, in an old way of measuring by twelves.
- 33The small bit of powder in a flintlock gun that sets off the main charge.
- 34A very pale wing feather from a male ostrich.
- 35To become new again.
Nights baſhfull Empreſſe, though ſhe often wayne, / As oft repents her darkneſſe ; primes againe ; / And with her circling Hornes does re-embrace / Her brothers wealth, and orbs her ſilver face.
1634, Francis Quarles, “My Soule Hath Desired Thee in the Night” - 36Of a boiler, to boil too hard so water goes out with the steam.
- 37To cut back a plant.
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Practice
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Origins
It comes from Latin prīmus, meaning "first".
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Prime derives from Latin prīmus, meaning "first". en.wiktionary.org
Linked to primage and to the Latin word primus, which means "first."