preponderance
See also: prépondérance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Etymology tree
English preponderant
English preponderance
From preponderant + -ance.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /pɹɪˈpɒndəɹəns/, /pɹɪˈpɒndɹəns/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /pɹəˈpɑndəɹəns/, /pɹəˈpɑndɹəns/
Audio (General American): (file) - Hyphenation: pre‧pon‧der‧ance
Noun
[edit]preponderance (countable and uncountable, plural preponderances)
- Superiority in amount or number; the bulk or majority; also, a large amount or number; an abundance, a profusion.
- Synonym: weight
- 1857, R[obert] Harries Jones, “Part the Second”, in The Japhetic Races. A Historical and Ethnological Inquiry into the Consanguinity of Various European Races. […], Göttingen: Printed at the University Press by W. Fr. Kaestner, →OCLC, section II, page 36:
- [S]trong proofs are at hand to shew, that in the Irish people there is a large admixture, if not an overwhelming praeponderance, of Iberian elements.
- 1997 August 17, Patricia Holt, “Just add sand; trash fiction for end-of-the summer beach reading”, in San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, Calif.: Hearst Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:
- Is there a preponderance of female protagonists in commercial fiction, and if so, what does it mean?
- 2000 April 17, Paul Van Slambrouck, “California’s brightest star is, well, gray”, in The Christian Science Monitor[1], Boston, Mass.: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 April 2025:
- Subtle, institutional discrimination was evident in the preponderance of blacks and underprivileged whites fighting the war.
- Superiority of influence, power, a quality, etc.; an outweighing, predominance, pre-eminence.
- Synonyms: (obsolete) preponderancy, preponderation, prevalence
- 1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 49:
- In a few weeks he [William III of England] had changed the relative position of all the states in Europe, and had restored the equilibrium which the preponderance of one power had destroyed.
- 1953, Sigmund Freud, “Distortion in Dreams”, in James Strachey, transl., The Interpretation of Dreams (First Part) (The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud), volume IV, London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, published 1971, →ISBN, page 134:
- But even less disgruntled observers have insisted that pain and unpleasure are more common in dreams than pleasure: for instance, Scholz (1893, 57), Volkelt (1875, 80), and others. Indeed two ladies, Florence Hallam and Sarah Weed (1896, 499), have actually given statistical expression, based on a study of their own dreams, to the preponderance of unpleasure in dreaming.
- (obsolete) Greater physical weight.
- Synonym: (obsolete) preponderancy
Alternative forms
[edit]- praeponderance (obsolete, rare)
- præponderance (obsolete, rare)
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]excess of weight of that part of a cannon behind the trunnions over that in front of them
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superiority in amount or number — see majority
large amount or number — see abundance
superiority of influence, power, etc. — see also predominance
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Further reading
[edit]- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “preponderance”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “preponderance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -ance
- English 4-syllable words
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Weapons
- English terms with historical senses
