different between prevalent vs preponderant

English

Alternative forms

• prævalent (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin praeval?ns; surface analysis pre- +? -valent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??v?l?nt/
• Hyphenation: prev?a?lent

Adjective

prevalent (comparative more prevalent, superlative most prevalent)

1. Widespread or preferred.
2. Superior in frequency or dominant.

Synonyms

• (widespread): common, rife; see also Thesaurus:widespread

Translations

See also

• prevalently
• prevalence

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “prevalent”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

English

Alternative forms

• praeponderant (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin praeponder?ns, present participle of praeponder? (“I outweigh”).

Adjective

preponderant (comparative more preponderant, superlative most preponderant)

1. Having greater or the greatest weight, quantity, importance or force.

   Synonyms: dominant, overriding, predominant

   • 1666, Robert Boyle, Hydrostatical Paradoxes, Oxford: Richard Davis, Paradox I, p. 28,^[1]

     […] if the Oyle and Water being in an Aequilibrium, you gently lift up the Pipe, […] the depth of the water being lessend, the oyle in the Pipe will grow praeponderant, and therefore will fall out in Drops or Globuls, which by the greater Specifick Gravity of the water, will be buoy’d up to the Top of the Liquor, and there flote:

   • 1767, George Canning, “Anti-Lucretius” in Poems, London: for the author, p. 281,^[2]

     Behold the balanc’d Scales suspended stand,

     Neither a jot inclin’d to either hand:

     But place the smallest grain of weight in one,

     Straight the fraternal equipoise is gone;

     The loaded scale, preponderant, downward flies,

     Drags down the chain, and makes it’s [sic] partner rise.

   • 1832, Thomas De Quincey, Klosterheim: or, The Masque, London: T. Cadell, Chapter 7, pp. 109-110,^[3]

     For the present, however, the Swedes were the preponderant party in the neighbourhood; they had fortified the chateau of Falkenberg, and made it a very strong military post;

   • 1936, Olaf Stapledon, Odd John, New York: Galaxy Publishing, Chapter 20, p. 136,^[4]

     The place was much like any ordinary lab., crowded with jars, test-tubes, retorts and so on. It evidently served for work on both the physical and the biological sciences, but the biological was preponderant.

Related terms

• preponderance
• preponderantly
• preponderate

References

• preponderant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Romanian

Adjective

preponderant m or n (feminine singular preponderant?, masculine plural preponderan?i, feminine and neuter plural preponderante)

1. Alternative form of preponderent

Declension