favorite
Americannoun
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favorites
plural
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a person or thing regarded with special favor or preference.
That song is an old favorite of mine.
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Sports. a competitor considered likely to win.
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a person or thing popular with the public.
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a person treated with special or undue favor by a king, official, etc..
favorites at the court.
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Digital Technology. bookmark.
adjective
Usage
Spelling tips for favorite The word favorite is hard to spell for two reasons. First, in British English it is spelled with a u (favourite), unlike the American English spelling favorite. Second, the final e is silent. How to spell favorite: When you do someone a favor, you don't do it for yourself. So, there is no u in favor. Now that we have the beginning of the word down, how do we remember the e in -ite? Well, it wouldn't be anything without an Ending (an e at the end). Put the two together and you get favorite.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of favorite
First recorded in 1575–85; from Middle French, from Italian favorito, “favored,” past participle of favorire “to favor, support,” from favore “favor, goodwill”; see favor, -ite 2
Explanation
Your favorite is what you like best. Your room is probably painted your favorite color, and the folders you carry to school are probably that color too. In a competition, the favorite is the one considered likely to win. If you bet on the favorite in a horse race, you're betting on the horse lots of other people think will win. The opposite of the favorite is the dark horse, or the underdog, or the long shot. You may have a favorite recipe, a favorite Web site, a favorite pastime, a favorite anything.
Vocabulary lists containing favorite
Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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"Crittercam to the Rescue"
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"I Remember"
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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.
See Examples For:
One of the world's most popular fan fiction libraries has been dark for over a week after a cyberattack forced it offline, leaving millions of fans without access to their favorite stories.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2026
His children and grandchildren, including the dragon-slaying hero Siegfried, pay for his evasions; Brünnhilde, Wotan’s favorite daughter, finally returns the ring to the Rhine as the gods’ world burns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Here’s one of my favorite things to do with them.
From Salon ● Nov. 5, 2026
Construction tycoon Trump may however choose to step back from confrontation and focus on his favorite subject -- stamping his physical legacy on Washington.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
I’d need a lot more information before I let him borrow my favorite book.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
Baltimore joins the Eagles, Cowboys and the dismal Chargers on the list of preseason favorites spiraling toward the draft.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
They’re actually narrow favorites to do so, according to election forecasters.
From Slate ● Nov. 2, 2026
Lehrer told the New York Times that jacarandas and bougainvilleas, native to South America and favorites of George Lucas, had to be included in the gardens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026
Major American studio releases vie against festival favorites in the animated feature competition.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
Why not checks? the daughters would wonder later, gossiping together in the bedroom, counting their money to make sure the father wasn't playing favorites.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
