predominant
Americanadjective
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having ascendancy, power, authority, or influence over others; preeminent.
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preponderant; prominent.
a predominant trait; the predominant color of a painting.
adjective
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having superiority in power, influence, etc, over others
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prevailing; prominent
Related Words
See dominant.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of predominant
1570–80; < Medieval Latin praedominant- (stem of praedomināns ), present participle of praedominārī to predominate. See pre-, dominant
Explanation
If you’re talking about the most popular or common thing, call it predominant. If the predominant feeling in a neighborhood is that pizza is the best food, the result might be pizzerias being the predominant type of restaurant there. The adjective predominant describes a person or thing with great power or influence, or something that is prevalent. It comes from the Latin prefix prae-, “before,” and dominari, “to rule.” For example, because so many people like hip-hop, it might be the predominant music heard at a school dance. And that neighborhood with all the pizzerias? Teenagers are the predominant customers, and pepperoni is the predominant topping.
Vocabulary lists containing predominant
30 GRE Words Beginning with "P"
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"'Blaxicans' and Other Reinvented Americans," Vocabulary from the argument
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Essential English Vocabulary, List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Predominant dress colors are black, "poison" green, purple.
From Time Magazine Archive
Predominant types: the whorls, jackstraws and disembodied eyelashes of Russian Vasily Kandinsky; the massive, machinelike color patterns of French Fernand L�ger; the planetary balls and bubbles, interlocking triangles and color spots of German Rudolf Bauer.
From Time Magazine Archive
Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing.
From Sybil, or the Two Nations by Disraeli, Benjamin, Earl of Beaconsfield
The following tables give in a condensed form the chief statistical results obtained in October 1905:— Predominant Range of Weekly Rents.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay" by Various
Portuguese, 243, 350 Pottery, 44 Preachers, Buddhist, 168 Predominant stock of Japanese, 87ff.,
From An Introduction to the History of Japan by Hara, Katsuro
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
