Precedence or precedent?
precedence is a noun meaning “The state of preceding in importance or priority”; precedent is a noun meaning “An act in the past which may be used as an example to help decide the outcome…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) precedent is about 2.8 times as common as precedence.
What is the difference between precedence and precedent?
| precedence | precedent | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, adjective, verb |
| Meaning | The state of preceding in importance or priority Precedent | An act in the past which may be used as an example to help decide the outcome of similar instances in the future A decided case which is cited or used as an example to justify a judgment in a subsequent case Happening or taking place earlier in time; previous or preceding |
| Example | Family takes precedence over work, in an emergency | A third argument may be derived from the precedent |
| Forms | precedences | precedents |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpɹɛsɪd(ə)ns/ /pɹɪˈsiːd(ə)ns/ /ˈpɹiːsɪd(ə)ns/ | /ˈpɹɛs.ɪ.dənt/ /ˈpɹiː.sɪ.dənt/ /ˈpɹɛs-/ |
| In writing | 2.1 times per million words | 6.0 times per million words |
Sources: precedence and precedent in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of precedence and precedent
precedence
- 1
The state of preceding in importance or priority
Family takes precedence over work, in an emergency
- 2
Precedent
precedent
- 1
An act in the past which may be used as an example to help decide the outcome of similar instances in the future
- 2
Happening or taking place earlier in time; previous or preceding
- 3
To provide precedents for
- 4
A decided case which is cited or used as an example to justify a judgment in a subsequent case
- 5
To be a precedent for
- 6
An established habit or custom
- 7
The previous version
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, precedence or precedent?
precedence appears 2.1 times per million words; precedent 6.0 times per million words.
precedence 2.1 times per million wordsprecedent 6.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search precedence vs precedent?
“precedence vs precedent” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 80 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“precedent vs precedence”, “precedence or precedent”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.