prior
/praɪər/(adjective)
AWL Sublist 4CEFR B2IELTS Band 7.0 - 9.0
Academic Definition
Existing or coming before in time, order, or importance.
Key Academic Collocations
Click to copyWord Family & Derivatives
priorpriorityprioritizeprioritization
Lexical Alternatives (Synonyms)
previousprecedingantecedentearlierforegoing
Academic Sample Sentences in Context
"Prior to the introduction of mandatory seatbelt legislation in 1983, road traffic fatality rates were substantially higher."
"Applicants with prior experience in computational linguistics were granted preferential consideration by the admissions committee."
"Environmental remediation must be accorded top priority when allocating annual municipal capital budgets."
IELTS Examiner Scoring Strategy (Lexical Resource)
'Prior to' is a high-level academic synonym for 'before': 'prior to 2010, the volume of plastic recycling was negligible'.