One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
Predominant in influence, number, or importance.‘the preponderant influence of the US within the alliance’
dominant, predominant, prevalent, in control, more powerful, most powerful, superior, supreme, ascendant, in the ascendancyView synonyms
- ‘In other words, it takes into account the preponderant aspect of a specific professional activity: whether it is weighted more heavily toward intellectual elaboration or toward muscularnervous effort.’
- ‘The nation, moreover, continues to enjoy the preponderant influence among national actors in determining what issues do and do not dominate the organization's agenda.’
- ‘Owing to its preponderant tribal population and geographical variation, this process in Orissa was different from the Indo-Gangetic model.’
- ‘But it also has a special obligation to justify its actions by principles that transcend the assertions of preponderant power.’
- ‘As a preponderant power, it can provide an important public good by acting as a mediator.’
- ‘Initially, at least, the preponderant view was that any alternative to bipolarity was likely to be some variation on multipolarity, with all of its depressing implications.’
- ‘To Mead, the majority population bore preponderant responsibility for the landscape's condition.’
- ‘The questions are here posed: is the continuance of Indian hunger and poverty a consequence of the smallness of the preponderant majority of the nation's farms?’
- ‘In view of its preponderant military and economic power, the willingness of the nation to exercise its influence over others is less remarkable than its relative restraint.’
- ‘The preponderant influence of these players speaks to something else about the nature of football, a characteristic that lends the game a persistently subversive, rebellious quality.’
- ‘The preponderant opinion was rural and reactionary and suspicious of some of the proposed social legislation.’
- ‘‘It would be easy to see that this preponderant influence which would accrue to a very large unit could be abused, and would in any case be resented by all the other constituent units.’’
- ‘Unions exercise a preponderant influence only because, in the Eighties, the country abandoned socialist political programmes under a socialist president.’
- ‘What is more, the Church enjoyed a preponderant influence in the daily lives of Italians, literally from the cradle to the grave.’
- ‘Any doubts about the seminal role of oil in determining a modern industrial nation's wealth can be laid to rest by reflecting on the preponderant weight of oil in the world's economy.’
- ‘This is a reflection of the preponderant US role in the drafting of this document.’
Late Middle English: from Latin preponderant- ‘weighing more’, from the verb praeponderare (see preponderate).
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