How to Use prior in a Sentence

prior

1 of 2 adjective
  • We have a prior claim to the estate.
  • Do you have a prior history of back problems?
  • The defendant had a prior record of convictions.
  • I'm sorry, but we have a prior commitment and can't come tonight.
  • The job requires prior experience in advertising.
  • That’s just shy of the all-time high set the prior week.
    — Matt Egan, CNN Money, 28 May 2026
  • Browns with pick in prior deal with Chiefs.
    — Miami Herald, 24 Apr. 2026
  • The stock has surged 44% over the prior three months.
    — Nick Wells,lisa Kailai Han, CNBC, 8 Sep. 2025
  • That was a decline from the prior year.
    — Kif Leswing, CNBC, 27 Oct. 2025
  • Each draw is a new day and has nothing to do with prior draws.
    — Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, 2 Sep. 2025
  • His prior deal had closed at what should have been a clean number.
    — Ron Smith, Forbes.com, 26 June 2026
  • That all-time high gold price didn't just edge past prior highs, either.
    — Angelica Leicht, CBS News, 24 Feb. 2026
  • The tradeoff is that there's no prior flight data to lean on.
    — Omar Kardoudi june 26, New Atlas, 26 June 2026
  • Three or four days after e-filing a prior tax year.
    — Marina Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal, 16 Feb. 2026
  • But experts have a hazier view of the building wave than in prior years.
    — Amanda Hoover, WIRED, 3 Aug. 2023
  • All prior rallies since the April low failed to clear this same line.
    — Frank Cappelleri, CNBC, 14 Jan. 2026
  • Proof of income for the current month and the prior month.
    — Shelby Slade, AZCentral.com, 27 Oct. 2025
  • The prior terms called for 3GW.
    — Zev Fima, CNBC, 7 Apr. 2026
  • Ginsburg was one of five votes that saved the law on two prior court challenges.
    — Darlene Superville, Star Tribune, 28 Sep. 2020
  • The prior full-year guidance was 4%.
    — Natasha Abellard, CNBC, 3 Oct. 2025
  • But what was the prior culture within the place?
    — Isaac Chotiner, New Yorker, 14 Jan. 2026
  • There have been two prior hearings on the matter.
    — Peter D'abrosca, FOXNews.com, 24 Feb. 2026
  • That’s a 34% increase over the prior year.
    — Rebecca Noel, Charlotte Observer, 28 Jan. 2026
  • For the prior nine months of the year, this metric came in at 9 percent.
    — Glenn Taylor, Sourcing Journal, 28 Oct. 2025
  • These areas saw more of a mix of line drives and popups than the prior sections.
    — Nathan Ruiz, baltimoresun.com, 7 May 2021
  • That’s a dramatic shift from prior years.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 24 Feb. 2026
  • At each fork, the results of the prior decision guide the way.
    — Jessica Wapner, SELF, 7 Feb. 2019
  • See the complete how-to video here and check out prior entries below.
    — Mike Rose, cleveland, 13 Aug. 2021
  • See the complete ribs video and check out prior cooking how-tos below.
    — Mike Rose, cleveland, 25 June 2021
  • The prior target was $154 a share.
    — Vicki M. Young, Footwear News, 15 Oct. 2025

prior

2 of 2 noun
  • Plenty of people learn more only to better serve their priors.
    — David Roberts, Vox, 9 Dec. 2018
  • The sheriff says Greenwood had taken drugs the night before and had no priors.
    — Madeleine Marr, miamiherald, 11 May 2018
  • The school district did not comment on the lack of a license or Gilkey-Meisegeier’s priors.
    — Melissa Chan, NBC news, 27 Aug. 2025
  • Court records show Abugharbieh had violent priors.
    — Michael Ruiz, FOXNews.com, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Team Stars versus World went to overtime before the prior prevailed.
    — Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 16 Feb. 2026
  • Usually that’s fine—preferable, even—because good data overwhelm weak priors.
    — Paul M. Sutter, Scientific American, 6 May 2026
  • The suspect was charged with burglary of a motor vehicle with 2 priors, evading on foot, and felon in possession of a weapon.
    — Houston Chronicle, 21 May 2018
  • He was charged at the time with driving under the influence with three or more priors, in addition to a misdemeanor charge of contempt of court.
    — Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 24 Feb. 2026
  • Stevens also didn’t have a driver’s license and was found to have two DUI priors in Missouri.
    — Fox News, 11 July 2018
  • Capital One’s stock fell 7% on Friday after the prior’s day earnings call.
    — Jeff Kauflin, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026
  • The women, aged 31, 50, and 26, were charged with felony grand theft, and two of them were charged with petty theft with two priors, court records show.
    — Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 16 Mar. 2026
  • Chapman, a mechanic, has priors for trying to solicit children.
    — Jose R. Gonzalez, Houston Chronicle, 27 Feb. 2018
  • Maxwell is the prior of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe.
    — Ross Guidotti, CBS News, 5 Jan. 2026
  • Individuals with no strong political priors seem not to have been swayed in either direction.
    — Leonid Peisakhin, Washington Post, 3 Apr. 2018
  • His priors included counts of lewd acts upon a child, possession for sale of crack, domestic violence and vehicle theft.
    — Evan Sernoffsky, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 Feb. 2020
  • The sentence imposed on the gun-use allegation also was tripled, and five years were added because of Royal’s serious felony priors.
    — Pauline Repard, sandiegouniontribune.com, 13 July 2018
  • Police said Walker has two priors arrests, which both occurred last year and were connected to domestic violence.
    — Emma Seiwell, New York Daily News, 6 Feb. 2026
  • In a few short decades, these groups and others helped commit roughly half the country to the ideological priors that had once made Goldwater unelectable.
    — Osita Nwanevu, Slate Magazine, 12 Aug. 2017
  • Griffen has three priors in New York City, according to the commissioner.
    — Aaron Katersky, ABC News, 11 Apr. 2026
  • Curtis Thornton was a first-time offender with no priors, and nobody was hurt in the arsons, but Jones sentenced him to 100 years in prison.
    — John Archibald | [email protected], al, 30 Oct. 2019
  • He was convicted of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon with priors in 2024 and was sentenced to life in prison.
    — Caroline Blair, PEOPLE, 2 July 2026
  • Its priors, which had generated the prediction, had proved trustworthy in the past; and sometimes the information coming from the eyes wasn’t reliable.
    — Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2018
  • In other words, being hallucination-prone went along with perceptual priors having a stronger effect on perception.
    — Anil K. Seth, Scientific American, 1 Sep. 2019
  • The stars had called off their engagement in September 2013 after postponing their wedding the April prior.
    — Michelle Lee, PEOPLE, 25 Sep. 2025
  • Had the extraordinary temperatures changed his priors?
    — Henry Grabar, The Atlantic, 27 June 2026
  • What emerges most powerfully here is the refusal of this proud steed of technocratic managerialism to engage with new circumstances, even as many in his own liberal camp reevaluate their priors.
    — Aaron Timms, The New Republic, 20 June 2019
  • At least one person transferred to ICE had no recent jail bookings, according to the sheriff’s department, and at least one person had 19 priors.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Her attorney, Neil Levine, said Vazquez-Hernandez had no priors, and had arranged before her arrest for counseling to deal with her anger issues with her husband.
    — Clifford Ward, chicagotribune.com, 15 Sep. 2017
  • The chief justice also does have legitimate philosophical priors about respecting precedent and issuing the narrowest possible opinions.
    — Dylan Scott, Vox, 9 July 2018
  • There's a lot of research on 'motivated reasoning' including my work that finds people apply less scrutiny to information that affirms their priors and more scrutiny to information that contradicts them.
    — Brian Stelter, CNN, 25 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prior.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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