"prime directive" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "prime directives",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "prime directive (plural prime directives)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1902, Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School, page 1949",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1946: University of Iowa/University of Chicago, The Journal of General Education, p. 160",
          "text": "Such probes would not invalidate the prime directive that a work of art must stand upon its intrinisic artistic merits"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1955, René Albrecht-Carrié, Europe After 1815, page 32",
          "text": "The prime directive of Austrian policy was the preservation of this state of affairs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An order or mission which presents the overriding control over a course of action."
      ],
      "id": "en-prime_directive-en-noun-vQdqI9u3",
      "links": [
        [
          "order",
          "order"
        ],
        [
          "mission",
          "mission"
        ],
        [
          "overriding",
          "overriding"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "prime directive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "prime directive"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "prime directives",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "prime directive (plural prime directives)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1902, Michigan Law Review, University of Michigan Law School, page 1949",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1946: University of Iowa/University of Chicago, The Journal of General Education, p. 160",
          "text": "Such probes would not invalidate the prime directive that a work of art must stand upon its intrinisic artistic merits"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1955, René Albrecht-Carrié, Europe After 1815, page 32",
          "text": "The prime directive of Austrian policy was the preservation of this state of affairs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An order or mission which presents the overriding control over a course of action."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "order",
          "order"
        ],
        [
          "mission",
          "mission"
        ],
        [
          "overriding",
          "overriding"
        ]
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "prime directive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "prime directive"
}