WORDLE ENGLISH
prime
adjective
prime—of the best quality; most important or main
/pɹaɪ̯m/
Origin
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.
adj
- First in importance, degree, or rank.“Our prime concern here is to keep the community safe.”
- First in time, order, or sequence.“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”“Better to clear prime forests, heave and thump / A league of street in summer solstice down, / Than hammer at this reverend gentlewoman.”
- First in excellence, quality, or value.“This is a prime location for a bookstore.”“Gemmen (says he), you all well know / The joy there is whene'er we meet; / It's what I call the primest go, / And rightly named, 'tis—'quite a treat,' […]”“"Is it very pleasant to be there, Bob?" / "Prime," said the turnkey.”
- Having exactly two integral factors: itself and unity (1 in the case of integers).“Thirteen is a prime number.”
- Such that if it divides a product, it divides one of the multiplicands.
- Having its complement closed under multiplication.
- Such that the annihilator of any nonzero submodule is equal to the annihilator of the whole module.
- Marked or distinguished by the prime symbol.
- 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.”
- obsoleteLecherous, lewd, lustful.“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: [...]”
noun
- historicalThe first hour of daylight; the first canonical hour.“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.”
- The religious service appointed to this hour.
- obsoleteThe early morning generally.“They all as glad, as birdes of ioyous Pryme […]”
- archaicThe earliest stage of something.“To this end we see how quickly sundry artes Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world.”“1645, Edmund Waller, “To a very young Lady” (earlier title: “To my young Lady Lucy Sidney”) in Poems, &c. Written upon Several Occasions, and to Several Persons, London: H. Herringman, 1686, p. 101, H”
- 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;”“Short were her Marriage-Joys; for in the Prime, / Of Youth, her Lord expir’d before his time: […]”“None but foreigners, excluded by their religion from the cemeteries of the country, are deposited here […]. The far greater part had been cut off in their prime, by unexpected disease or fatal acciden”
- The chief or best individual or part.“Give him always of the prime; And but a little at a time.”
- 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”“The large primes are struggling to do things the way Anduril does, because they're publicly traded companies with an existing investor class that invested in them to be a certain type of company.”
- The first note or tone of a musical scale.
- The first defensive position, with the sword hand held at head height, and the tip of the sword at head height.
- 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 associ”“3 is a prime.”
- A four-card hand containing one card of each suit in the game of primero; the opposite of a flush in poker.
- A series of consecutive blocks. A prime of six prevents the opponent's pieces from passing.“I'm threatening to build a prime here.”
- The symbol ′ used to indicate feet, minutes, derivation and other measures and mathematical operations.
- obsoleteAny 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.
- An inch, as composed of twelve seconds in the duodecimal system.
- obsoleteThe priming in a flintlock.“[…] 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 ”
- abbreviation, alt-of, contractionContraction of prime lens, a film lens.“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 ”
- A feather, from the wing of the cock ostrich, that is of the palest possible shade.
- A stimulus which causes priming.
- 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.”
verb
- transitiveTo fill or prepare the chamber of a mechanism for its main work.“You'll have to press this button twice to prime the fuel pump.”
- transitiveTo apply a coat of primer paint to.“I need to prime these handrails before we can apply the finish coat.”
- intransitive, obsoleteTo be renewed.“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.”
- intransitiveTo serve as priming for the charge of a gun.
- intransitiveTo 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.“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 t”
- To apply priming to (a musket or cannon); to apply a primer to (a metallic cartridge).
- To prepare; to make ready.“The boys are primed for mischief.”““He’s priming himself,” Osborne whispered to Dobbin, and at length the hour and the carriage arrived for Vauxhall.”
- archaicTo instruct beforehand, as for an examination; to coach.“to prime a witness”
- UK, dialectal, obsoleteTo trim or prune.“to prime trees”
- To mark with a prime mark.
name
- A surname.
Formsprimer(comparative) · primest(superlative) · primes(plural) · primes(present, singular, third-person) · priming(participle, present) · primed(participle, past) · primed(past) · Primes(plural)
Appeared In
Octordle Board 5 #38 · May 18, 2026
Daily Puzzle #1714 · February 27, 2026
Daily Puzzle #932 · January 7, 2024
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