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primacy

UK/ˈpɹaɪ.mə.si/US/ˈpɹaɪ.mə.si/
nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechmostly written

Primacy is the state of coming first in rank or importance. The primacy of the law.

It is about precedence rather than power, though the two usually travel together. Primacy in the church names the office of a primate, which is where the word began.

Definitions of primacy

  1. 1nounprimacyThe state of coming first in rank or importance.C1

    “The primacy of the written contract settled the dispute.”

primacy is a state.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin primatia, the office of a church primate, from Latin primus, first.

  1. Latin

    primas

  2. Medieval Latin

    primatia — office of a church primate

  3. Old French

    primacie

  4. English, today

    primacy

From Old French primacie, from Medieval Latin primatia (“office of a church primate”), from Latin primas plus a suffix corresponding to -acy. by surface analysis, en + prime + acy.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

primacy in the wild

  • While the doctrine is accepted at a fundamental level by both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the two disagree on the nature of primacy.

    Papal primacy

  • Among earlier list items, the first few items are recalled more frequently than the middle items (the primacy effect).

    Serial-position effect

  • Longer presentation lists have been found to reduce the primacy effect.

    Serial-position effect

  • The primacy of Peter, also known as Petrine primacy, is the position of preeminence that is attributed to Peter among the Twelve Apostles of Christianity.

    Primacy of Peter

  • The Primacy of the Spains is the primacy of the Iberian Peninsula, historically known as Hispania or in the plural as the Spains.

    Primacy of the Spains

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the primas family

primate

primacy — used too rare to measure · point at the bar for the others