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
This marks the function of a garden in a world where, but for its presence, the commonplace might preponderate; 'tis man's recreation ground, children's fairyland, bird's orchestra, butterfly's banquet.
From Garden-Craft Old and New by John D. Sedding
It was now almost impossible to say which side preponderated.
From Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume II (of 2) by Henry Glassford Bell
As far as he could see by the glimmer of grey morning light that broke its difficult way in by the round windows, it was a well-dressed audience in which ladies preponderated.
From The Chief Justice A Novel by Karl Emil Franzos
But the Doric religion seems here to have preponderated, and to have supplanted the elementary symbols so evident in the Hyacinthia.
From The History and Antiquities of the Doric Race, Vol. 1 of 2 by Karl Otfried Müller
The market day close at hand still preponderated over any day even a year off.
From The Ravens and the Angels With Other Stories and Parables by Elizabeth Rundle Charles
The petitioners proposed a measure that evidently tended to throw weight into a scale which preponderated too much already.
From A Short History of English Liberalism by Walter Lyon Blease
"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
Its effect may struggle as it will: it sinks under the preponderating mass as a butterfly will be beaten down under a dirty, drenching, city rain.
From Critical Studies by Ouida
Hence the will-reason exhibits its existence in them as a preponderating majority of freemen, or in its “reflectional” universality, which has its actuality vouchsafed it as a participation in the sovereignty.
From Hegel's Philosophy of Mind by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
There’s a preponderating number of unattached young men in the newly-opened parts of the Dominion.”
From The Protector by Harold Bindloss
The principle involved in this preponderating e. m. f. he explains in this way: Suppose a conductor is moved into the magnetic field and then suddenly withdrawn.
From The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting by Thomas Commerford Martin
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.
