Premier

/ˈpɹɛ.mi.ɛː/ · adjective

Meaning

Foremost; first or highest in quality or degree..

Definitions by Sense

1. Foremost; first or highest in quality or degree.
2. (heraldry) Most ancient; first to hold a specified status.
3. (politics, UK, Westminster system) The head of government in parliament and leader of the cabinet.
4. (politics, non-Westminster) The government leader in a legislative congress or leader of a government-level administrative body; the head of government.
5. (nautical, slang) The first lieutenant or other second-in-command officer of a ship.
6. (Australia, sporting) The champion team of a particular season (especially as used in Australian rules football).
7. To perform, display or exhibit for the first time.
8. To govern in the role of premier.

Example Sentences

2004, Philip Moore, Scouting an Anthropology of Sport, Anthropologica, Volume 46, Number 1, Canadian Anthropology Society, page 40, This failure, for a team associated with one of the premier Australian Rules Football teams with the longest of traditions, is truly enormous.

2011, Kate Askew, Dot. Bomb Australia, Read How You Want, page 70, If they′d followed the advice they had received more carefully, they would have paired up with John Fairfax Holdings, later Fairfax Media, Australia′s premier independent media company.

South Africa′s golfing greats battle it out on one of the country′s premier courses.

PREMIER, a. This French word, which signifies first, is used by English Heralds to signify the most ancient Peer of any Degree by Creation; as Premier Baron, &c.

[…]dau. of Lord Forbes, Premier Baron of Scotland (the Cumine family were of very ancient date[…])

"THE PREMIER DUKES OF FRANCE. " It will be seen from the autograph appended [...] He was the first to arrive, but it was to his coachman that he owed it that he became the premier Duke of France.

1983, Guo Zhou, China & the World, Volume 4, Beijing Review, page 13, This shows that our policy of strengthening friendly ties with Africa as developed by Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai is a correct one and that it has won popular support in Africa.

Actual decision-making power in China resides in the state′s executive organs and in the CCP. At the national level the top government executive organ is the State Council, which is led by the premier.

Synonyms for premier

Antonyms for premier

Related Words

Word Forms

• premiers
• premiering
• premiered

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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