preponderate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to exceed something else in weight; be the heavier.
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to incline downward or descend, as one scale or end of a balance, because of greater weight; be weighed down.
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to be superior in power, force, influence, number, amount, etc.; predominate.
Evidence for the accused preponderated at the trial.
verb
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(often foll by over) to be more powerful, important, numerous, etc (than)
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to be of greater weight than something else
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of preponderate
1615–25; < Latin praeponderātus, past participle of praeponderāre to outweigh. See pre-, ponder, -ate 1
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:
“If his own opinion prevails at some times, he should acquiesce on seeing that of others preponderate at others. Without this mutual disposition we are disjointed individuals, but not a society.”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 10, 2019
While it is true that some Reformed Congregations hold their services on Sunday, the preponderate number of them still cling to the traditional sabbath.
From Time Magazine Archive
He specifically stated that "management of the institution must be genuinely international, without preponderate power of veto."
From Time Magazine Archive
These seek their complement in the other sex cell, but if the male micro-cellules preponderate in number over the female the result will be a male embryo, and vice versa.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the consequences which flow from dining copiously, what is beneficial is evidently stated to preponderate over what is hurtful, the qualifying "sometimes" being only attached to the latter.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 370, August 1846 by Various
As this latter opinion preponderated Daniel did not find that he was treated with any marked respect in his native town.
From Lady Anna by Trollope, Anthony
If the number of sheep who were black, or even grey, preponderated and if laxity were general in the community, the chapter would not concern itself to raise its own standard.
From Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535 by Power, Eileen
In the cathedral towns the trades' guilds preponderated in influence.
From The Thirteenth Greatest of Centuries by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
The General was too cool and self-controlled to be always the loser, and up to the time of our story, this one active vice had rather preponderated in favor of his own interests.
From Mabel's Mistake by Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
On exhausting the air, the bladder preponderated, and, by repeating the experiment with additional weights on the other arm until a balance was effected in the exhausted receiver, he determined the amount of the preponderance.
From Heroes of Science: Physicists by Garnett, William
"The League cannot ignore the existence of Japan as a world power, and especially as a power with the preponderating position in Eastern Asia."
From Time Magazine Archive
To produce an act of choice, therefore, we have only to awaken a preponderating desire.
From A Review of Edwards's by Tappan, Henry Philip
The condition was enjoined upon them that whenever “decidedly preponderating evidence” constrained their adoption of some change in “the Text from which the Authorized Version was made,” they should indicate such alteration in the margin.
From The Revision Revised by Burgon, John William
The juries made their presentments in respect of large masses of peasantry, under the preponderating influence of the gentry and without much chance for the verification of particular instances.
From Villainage in England Essays in English Mediaeval History by Vinogradoff, Paul
But only by exerting the whole available strength of the VIIIth Corps had it been possible to withstand the preponderating attack of the enemy.
From The Franco-German War of 1870-71 by Helmuth, Count
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.
