Premier

How to spell premier

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce premier

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does premier mean?

1. adjectiveFirst in importance, rank, or quality; leading.
2. nounThe head of a government, especially of a state or province.

Premier in a sentence

• adjective

  The firm became the country's premier supplier of solar panels.

• noun

  The provincial premier announced new funding for rural hospitals.

• adjective

  Tickets to the premier event of the season sold out within hours.

• noun

  Each state premier met with the federal cabinet to discuss the budget.

Where does premier come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the French premier, meaning 'first' or 'foremost', which descends from the Latin primarius, 'of the first rank' or 'chief', itself built on primus, the Latin word for 'first'. French used premier as the ordinary word for 'first', and English borrowed it in the late Middle Ages, at first as an adjective meaning 'earliest' or 'most important'. From the sense 'first in rank' it came to name the chief minister of a government, the 'first' minister, which is how Commonwealth countries still use it for the head of a state or provincial government. The spelling keeps the French ending -ier rather than an English one, and that French tail is the source of the trap, because the related theatre word 'premiere' simply adds a final -e. Knowing that premier means 'first', the same root that gives us 'primary' and 'prime', helps fix which of the two spellings means 'foremost' and which means 'first showing'.

How the word is built

• premier (from Latin primarius: of the first rank, via French premier 'first')

Words that sound like premier

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• premiere: The first public performance or showing of a film, play, or other work.