Adjacent Words

Prevalent definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PREV'ALENT, a. Gaining advantage or superiority; victorious.
Brennus told the Roman embassadors,that prevalent arms were as good as any title.
1. Powerful; efficacious; successful; as prevalent supplications.
2. Predominant; most generally received or current; as a prevalent opinion.
3. Predominant; most general; extensively existing; as a prevalent disease.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: most frequent or common; "prevailing winds" [syn: prevailing, prevalent, predominant, dominant, rife]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin praevalent-, praevalens very powerful, from present participle of praeval?re Date: 1576 1. archaic powerful 2. being in ascendancy ; dominant 3. generally or widely accepted, practiced, or favored ; widespread • prevalent noun • prevalently adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 generally existing or occurring. 2 predominant. Derivatives: prevalence n. prevalently adv. Etymology: as PREVAIL

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Prevalent Prev"a*lent, a. [L. praevalens, -entis, p. pr. of praevalere. See Prevail.] 1. Gaining advantage or superiority; having superior force, influence, or efficacy; prevailing; predominant; successful; victorious. Brennus told the Roman embassadors, that prevalent arms were as good as any title. --Sir W. Raleigh. 2. Most generally received or current; most widely adopted or practiced; also, generally or extensively existing; widespread; prevailing; as, a prevalent observance; prevalent disease. This was the most received and prevalent opinion. --Woodward. Syn: Prevailing; predominant; successful; efficacious; powerful. Usage: Prevalent, Prevailing. What customarily prevails is prevalent; as, a prevalent fashion. What actually prevails is prevailing; as, the prevailing winds are west. Hence, prevailing is the livelier and more pointed word, since it represents a thing in action. It is sometimes the stronger word, since a thing may prevail sufficiently to be called prevalent, and yet require greater strength to make it actually prevailing.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

A condition, practice, or belief that is prevalent is common. This condition is more prevalent in women than in men... The prevalent view is that interest rates will fall. ADJ: usu v-link ADJ • prevalence ...the prevalence of asthma in Britain and western Europe.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Superior, predominant, successful, prevailing, efficacious. 2. Prevailing, predominant, most general, extensively existing.

Moby Thesaurus

abounding, abundant, accepted, accidental, accompanying, ado, affluent, afloat, afoot, all the rage, all the thing, all-sufficing, ample, aplenty, ascendant, at the head, average, being, besetting, boss, bottomless, bounteous, bountiful, catholic, chief, circumstantial, commanding, common, commonplace, conformable, consuetudinary, controlling, conventional, copious, current, customary, diffuse, doing, dominant, effuse, epidemic, established, eventuating, everyday, exhaustless, existent, existing, extant, extensive, extravagant, exuberant, familiar, fashionable, fat, fertile, flush, frequent, frequentative, full, galore, general, generally accepted, generous, going on, governing, habitual, happening, head, hegemonic, hegemonistic, hip, in ascendancy, in being, in charge, in chief, in effect, in existence, in fashion, in force, in hand, in plenty, in quantity, in style, in the ascendant, in the wind, in vogue, incidental, inexhaustible, lavish, leading, liberal, living, luxuriant, many, many times, master, maximal, mod, modern, much, new, newfashioned, normal, not rare, numerous, obtaining, occasional, occurring, of common occurrence, oft-repeated, oftentime, omnipresent, on, on foot, ongoing, opulent, ordinary, overbearing, overflowing, pandemic, paramount, passing, pervasive, plenitudinous, plenteous, plentiful, plenty, popular, predominant, predominate, predominating, prepollent, preponderant, preponderate, prepotent, prescribed, prescriptive, present, prevailing, prodigal, productive, profuse, profusive, rampant, received, recurrent, regnant, regular, regulating, regulation, regulative, regulatory, reigning, replete, resultant, rich, rife, riotous, routine, ruling, running, running over, set, smart, sovereign, standard, stereotyped, stock, subsistent, subsisting, superabundant, supreme, taking place, teeming, thick-coming, time-honored, traditional, trendy, ubiquitous, under the sun, under way, universal, up-to-date, up-to-datish, up-to-the-minute, usual, wealthy, well-found, well-furnished, well-provided, well-stocked, wholesale, widespread, wonted