priority queue

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

priority queue

   <programming> A data structure with three operations: insert a
   new item, return the highest priority item, and remove the
   highest priority item.  The obvious way to represent priority
   queues is by maintaining a sorted list but this can make the
   insert operation very slow.  Greater efficiency can be
   achieved by using {heaps}.

   (1996-03-12)