preponderance

From preponderant +‎ -ance.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈpɒndəɹəns/, /pɹɪˈpɒndɹəns/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹəˈpɑndəɹəns/, /pɹəˈpɑndɹəns/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pre‧pon‧der‧ance

preponderance (countable and uncountable, plural preponderances)

1. Superiority in amount or number; the bulk or majority; also, a large amount or number; an abundance, a profusion.

   Synonym: (obsolete) preponderancy

   • 1857, R[obert] Harries Jones, “Part the Second”, in The Japhetic Races. A Historical and Ethnological Inquiry into the Consanguinity of Various European Races. […], Göttingen: Printed at the University Press by W. Fr. Kaestner, →OCLC, section II, page 36:

     [S]trong proofs are at hand to shew, that in the Irish people there is a large admixture, if not an overwhelming praeponderance, of Iberian elements.

   • 1997 August 17, Patricia Holt, “Just add sand; trash fiction for end-of-the summer beach reading”, in San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, Calif.: Hearst Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:

     Is there a preponderance of female protagonists in commercial fiction, and if so, what does it mean?

   • 2000 April 17, Paul Van Slambrouck, “California’s brightest star is, well, gray”, in The Christian Science Monitor‎^[1], Boston, Mass.: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Subtle, institutional discrimination was evident in the preponderance of blacks and underprivileged whites fighting the war.

2. Superiority of influence, power, a quality, etc.; an outweighing, predominance, pre-eminence.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) preponderancy, preponderation

   • 1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XI, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 49:

     In a few weeks he [William III of England] had changed the relative position of all the states in Europe, and had restored the equilibrium which the preponderance of one power had destroyed.

   • 1953, Sigmund Freud, “Distortion in Dreams”, in James Strachey, transl., The Interpretation of Dreams (First Part) (The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud), volume IV, London: The Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, published 1971, →ISBN, page 134:

     But even less disgruntled observers have insisted that pain and unpleasure are more common in dreams than pleasure: for instance, Scholz (1893, 57), Volkelt (1875, 80), and others. Indeed two ladies, Florence Hallam and Sarah Weed (1896, 499), have actually given statistical expression, based on a study of their own dreams, to the preponderance of unpleasure in dreaming.

3. (obsolete) Greater physical weight.

   Synonym: (obsolete) preponderancy

   1. (specifically, weaponry, historical) The excess of weight of that part of a cannon behind the trunnions over that in front of them.

• praeponderance (obsolete, rare)
• præponderance (obsolete, rare)

• preponderance of evidence, preponderance of the evidence

• “preponderance”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “preponderance”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.