precedency

1. 1.

   status established in order of importance or urgency

   “...its precedence as the world's leading manufacturer of pharmaceuticals”

   “national independence takes priority over class struggle”

   Synonymsprecedencepriority

   Broaderhigh status

   Narrowerback burnerfront burner
2. 2.

   preceding in time

   Synonymspriorityantecedenceantecedencyanteriorityprecedence

   Broaderearliness
3. 3.

   the act of preceding in time or order or rank (as in a ceremony)

   Synonymsprecessionprecedence

   Broaderactivity

Other forms of precedency

plural

precedencies·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about precedency

What does precedency mean?

precedency means "status established in order of importance or urgency". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in precedency?

precedency has 4 syllables: pre-ce-den-cy. The stress falls on "ce".

What is another word for precedency?

Close synonyms include precedence, priority, priority, antecedence, antecedency. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is precedency a common word?

precedency is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.