prevailing wind
Americannoun
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prevailing winds
plural
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Meteorology. a wind from a specified direction that is the typical or predominant wind direction in a particular region or season (often used in the plural).
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the dominant direction of public attitudes and trends.
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A wind that blows predominantly from a single general direction. The trade winds of the tropics, which blow from the east throughout the year, are prevailing winds.
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See illustration at wind
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
The immense umbrella cloud that forms does not behave like a normal ash plume that simply drifts with the prevailing wind.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026
Yana Valachovic, a fire scientist at the University of California, said some of the spared houses were tucked away from prevailing wind currents so that embers didn’t hit them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2025
Do you have a prevailing wind direction in your yard?
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
No. 9, 171 yards, par 3: This hole is about 15 to 20 feet higher than the tee box and into the prevailing wind.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 10, 2023
She rode the prevailing wind over the familiar mountains and rivers and beyond the Catskills into unknown territory.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
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.
