This term has several meanings. In the context of:

Bankruptcy, the ranking of a claim which entitles it to be paid before other claims are paid. All claims with a higher priority must be paid in full before claims with a lower priority are paid anything. The Bankruptcy Code specifies the order in which the estate pays unsecured claims if there is not enough money to pay all such claims in full. All claims with the same priority are paid pro rata. Unsecured claims are paid in the following order:

Secured claims are not included in this ranking scheme because they are the first to be paid from the proceeds of the collateral which secure such claims.

Finance, the particular order in which debt or collateral claims are ranked. Priority can be determined by contract between creditors (for example, intercreditor agreements or subordination agreements), by order in time, or by structural subordination.