Final answer:
Thread Priority determines the order in which threads are scheduled for execution by the operating system, with priority levels ranging from Lowest to Highest. The priority affects how CPU time is allocated to threads, which is important in multithreaded program execution.
Step-by-step explanation:
The priority of a thread, often referred to as Thread Priority, is a parameter that determines the order in which threads are scheduled for execution. Operating systems use a scheduling algorithm to decide how to allocate CPU time to various running processes and threads; this is where thread priority comes into play. In many programming environments, priorities are often categorized in levels such as Lowest, Below Normal, Normal, Above Normal, and Highest.
Threads with higher priorities are typically executed before those with lower priorities. However, the exact behavior and even the range and meaning of priority levels can depend on the operating system and the runtime environment. It is important for developers to understand thread priority when writing programs that perform multiple tasks simultaneously (multithreading) to avoid issues such as starvation, where lower priority threads may not get enough CPU time to execute if higher priority threads are consuming all the resources.