What does "prime" mean?
The first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour.
Prime
/pɹaɪ̯m/ adj, name, noun, verb
adj, name, noun, verb ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: The first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour.
- Grammar: prime is listed as adj, name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: abecedarian, aboriginal, acme, admirable.
- Useful contrasts: bad, composite life form concept, composite positive integer.
- Usage evidence: Prime numbers are like life; they are completely logical, but impossible to find the rules for, even if you spend all your time thinking about it.
How to use "prime"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "prime" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "prime" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "prime" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "prime" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
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- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "prime" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "abecedarian" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour. historical
"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."
- 2 An intermediate sprint within a race, usually offering a prize and/or points.
"Most primes are won with gaps on the field; most sprints are in bunches."
- 3 a natural number that has exactly two distinct natural number divisors: 1 and itself wordnet
- 4 The religious service appointed to this hour.
- 5 the time of maturity when power and vigor are greatest wordnet
Show 19 more definitions
- 6 The early morning generally. obsolete
"They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Pryme […]"
- 7 the second canonical hour; about 6 a.m. wordnet
- 8 The earliest stage of something. archaic
"To this end we see how quickly sundry artes Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world."
- 9 the period of greatest prosperity or productivity wordnet
- 10 The most active, thriving, or successful stage or period.
"When I do count the clock that tells the time, And see the brave day sunk in hideous night; When I behold the violet past prime, And sable curls all silver’d o'er with white;"
- 11 The chief or best individual or part.
"Give him always of the prime; And but a little at a time."
- 12 Something which is first in importance or rank: a prime defense company, mortgage lender, etc.
"I found just as we were fearful we would find that many of the big primes felt that this was a change of policy on the part of the U.S. Government to let the big fellows take care of it, and they were ready to cut back, and in many instances were cutting back[…]"
- 13 The first note or tone of a musical scale.
- 14 The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
- 15 A prime element of a mathematical structure, particularly a prime number.
"Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes."
- 16 A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
- 17 A series of consecutive blocks. A prime of six prevents the opponent's pieces from passing.
"I'm threatening to build a prime here."
- 18 The symbol ′ used to indicate feet, minutes, derivation and other measures and mathematical operations.
- 19 Any number expressing the combining weight or equivalent of any particular element; so called because these numbers were respectively reduced to their lowest relative terms on the fixed standard of hydrogen as 1. obsolete
- 20 An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
- 21 The priming in a flintlock. obsolete
"[…] he pull’d the Trigger, but Providence being pleas’d to preserve me for some other Purpose, the Cock snapp’d, and miss’d Fire. Whether the Prime was wet in the Pan, or by what other Miracle it was I escap’d his Fury, I cannot say […]"
- 22 Contraction of prime lens, a film lens. abbreviation, alt-of, contraction
"Tomlinson, Shawn M. (2015), Going Pro for $200 & How to Choose a Prime Lens, →ISBN, page 72: “By the time I shifted to my first autofocus film SLR with the Pentax PZ-10, primes were considered things of the past”"
- 23 A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
- 24 A stimulus which causes priming.
Verb
- 1 To fill or prepare the chamber of a mechanism for its main work. transitive
"You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump."
- 2 insert a primer into (a gun, mine, or charge) preparatory to detonation or firing wordnet
- 3 To apply a coat of primer paint to. transitive
"I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat."
- 4 fill with priming liquid wordnet
- 5 To be renewed. intransitive, obsolete
"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."
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 cover with a primer; apply a primer to wordnet
- 7 To serve as priming for the charge of a gun. intransitive
- 8 To work so that foaming occurs from too violent ebullition, which causes water to become mixed with, and be carried along with, the steam that is formed. intransitive
"Although we took our eight bogies along to Whitstable at 60 m.p.h., and made a clean start from there, after Herne Bay the engine primed badly on Blacksole Bank and nearly stopped before we got over the top. Then we ran like the wind across the marshes with half-regulator, 30 per cent cut-off, and the engine blowing off."
- 9 To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
- 10 To prepare; to make ready.
"The boys are primed for mischief."
- 11 To instruct beforehand, as for an examination; to coach. archaic
"to prime a witness"
- 12 To trim or prune. UK, dialectal, obsolete
"to prime trees"
- 13 To mark with a prime mark.
Adjective
- 1 First in importance, degree, or rank.
"Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe."
- 2 First in time, order, or sequence.
"Both the English and French governments established prime meridians in their capitals."
- 3 First in excellence, quality, or value.
"This is a prime location for a bookstore."
- 4 Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).
"Thirteen is a prime number."
- 5 Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 Having its complement closed under multiplication.
- 7 Such that the annihilator of any nonzero submodule is equal to the annihilator of the whole module.
- 8 Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
- 9 Early; blooming; being in the first stage.
"[...] His ſtarrie Helme unbuckl’d ſhew’d him prime / In Manhood where Youth ended ; by his ſide / As in a glittering Zodiac hung the Sword, / Satans dire dread, and in his hand the Spear."
- 10 Lecherous, lewd, lustful. obsolete
"It is impoſſible you ſhould ſee this, / Were they as prime as Goates, as hot as Monkies, / As ſalt as Wolues, in pride; and fooles as groſſe / As ignorance made drunke: [...]"
Adjective
- 1 first in rank or degree wordnet
- 2 used of the first or originating agent wordnet
- 3 being at the best stage of development wordnet
- 4 of superior grade wordnet
- 5 of or relating to or being an integer that cannot be factored into other integers wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
Example
"Prime numbers are like life; they are completely logical, but impossible to find the rules for, even if you spend all your time thinking about it."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "prime"?
Common synonyms include: abecedarian, aboriginal, acme, admirable, adolescence, adulthood.
How do you use "prime" in a sentence?
Prime numbers are like life; they are completely logical, but impossible to find the rules for, even if you spend all your time thinking about it.
How do you pronounce "prime"?
Pronounced /pɹaɪ̯m/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
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.
Etymology 2
Related to primage and Latin prīmus.
Etymology 3
From French prime (“reward, prize, bonus”).