Word.ws English Dictionary

prime directive

prime directive noun: an order or mission which presents the overriding control over a course of action.

Noun

prime directive (plural prime directives)

  1. An order or mission which presents the overriding control over a course of action.
    • We are, after all, discussing the prime directive of academic life and a vitally important rule of civilized life in general: Seek and disseminate the truth.1902, Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School, page 1949
    • Such probes would not invalidate the prime directive that a work of art must stand upon its intrinisic artistic merits1946: University of Iowa/University of Chicago, The Journal of General Education, p. 160

Forms of prime directive

pluralprime directives

Questions about prime directive

What does prime directive mean?
Prime directive means an order or mission which presents the overriding control over a course of action.
What part of speech is prime directive?
Prime directive is a noun.
What is the plural of prime directive?
The plural of prime directive is prime directives.

Words near prime directive in the dictionary

  1. prime cost
  2. prime cut
  3. prime cuts
  4. prime decomposition
  5. prime decompositions
  6. prime directive
  7. prime directives
  8. prime donne
  9. prime factor
  10. prime factored
  11. prime factoring

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prime directive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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