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I'm struggling to think of a name for something which feels to me like there's probably a good word for. In a software project, we have a ranking of "importance" of an element. Our scale currently has five levels of importance, which are expressed as follows, from most important to least important:

  • Critical
  • High
  • Medium
  • Low
  • Trivial

A case has been raised in which we have a legitimate need to introduce a new level, between the existing "Medium" and "High" levels. My question is simply this:

What is a good term for expressing a priority or level of importance between "High" and "Medium/Normal"?

We should be able to use the term to say "This item is [blank] priority" or "This item has a [blank] priority level" and have it make sense.

The best I've been able to come up with is "somewhat high" or "moderately high", but I'm unsure if there's a better (perhaps even obvious) word or phrase I'm missing here which would express the concept. It feels to me like there's a pretty large gap between something that's of average importance and something of high importance. I'd strongly prefer a single word here, but a compound of two words is acceptable if that's the best there is. Any suggestions?

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  • 1
    Medium Plus. If your terms were grades (A,B,C,D,F) the grade you want to express would be C+ or C+/B-.
    – ab2
    May 4, 2018 at 7:55
  • 2
    Medium - a bit more medium - kind of medium but sort of highish - very medium - high but still a bit medium (etc etc).
    – Nigel J
    May 4, 2018 at 13:35
  • 1
    Elevated.......
    – ab2
    Feb 8, 2019 at 1:06

2 Answers 2

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I'd say medium-high. You could also add 'very high' or 'higher' above 'high' and bump 'high' down, but that sounds like it would be trouble. You could try heightened, I'd say a 'heightened priority' would likely lie between medium and high, but it's certainly not unambiguous.

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  • Seconded. By analogy with "North, north-west, west"
    – Ben
    Oct 7, 2021 at 8:16
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For a single word:

Critical
High
Concerning
Medium
Low
Trivial

Concerning (adj.)

Causing concern or worry : creating reason for concern : TROUBLING

found the latest reports very concerning m-w

Causing anxiety; worrying. Lexico

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