Ahead, Past, Former
Noun, Prefix, Suffix, and の adjective
さき
分かるもんだいから先にときましょう。
You should start with the problems you can solve.
この先のみちをまっすぐいって川をこえると、北アメリカに入ります。
If you go straight up this street and over the river, you will enter North America.
申し訳ないけど、今日は先に元彼とした約束があるので、あなたとは会えません。
I’m sorry, but I have a prior engagement with my ex-boyfriend today, so I can’t meet up with you.
The kanji and the word are exactly the same. That means they share meanings as well.
Since this word is made up of a single kanji, it should use the kun'yomi reading. When learning the kanji, you didn't learn that reading, so here's a mnemonic to help you with this word:
When I think about the word "previous" I think of the beginning of a TV show where they say "previously on..." Let's go with that.
Previously on Lost (or some other show), everyone gets stuck inside of a sack (さき). Imagine all the characters in the TV show writhing around inside of a sack, trying to get out.
You can differentiate this from 先ず (まず) because it doesn't have a hiragana add on. It's plain. It's boring. It's just a sack (and also means the same thing as the kanji it comes from because it's a single kanji with nothing attached, which gets you to previous, which gets you to さき).