PREVALENT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Prevalent

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/prˈɛvələnt/ Listen

adjective

Prevalent adj.

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."

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."

Synonyms: Prevailing; predominant; successful; efficacious; powerful. 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.

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Etymology of 'Prevalent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Prevalent" Quotes from Famous Books

... told me these things had been reared in ease and comfort, was a man of good parts, and was college bred. His loose grammar was the fruit of careless habit, not ignorance. This habit among educated men in the West is not universal, but it is prevalent— prevalent in the towns, certainly, if not in the cities; and to a degree which one cannot help noticing, and marveling at. I heard a Westerner who would be accounted a highly educated man in any country, say 'never mind, it DON'T MAKE ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... any indication of what John would see, he was prepared to be astonished indeed. The simple piety prevalent in Hades has the earnest worship of and respect for riches as the first article of its creed—had John felt otherwise than radiantly humble before them, his parents would have turned away in ...

— Tales of the Jazz Age • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... of the various religions extant indicates that the religious factor is no less prevalent today than it ...

— The Necessity of Atheism • Dr. D.M. Brooks

... Agassiz fell ill of a typhus fever prevalent at the university as an epidemic. His life was in danger for many days. As soon as he could be moved, Braun took him to Carlsruhe, where his convalescence was carefully watched over by his friend's mother. Being still delicate he was advised to recruit ...

— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz

... where each of them is to be found. The dress, both of boys and girls, was elegantly neat, and their manner, when called upon to speak individually, was well-bred, intelligent, and totally free from the rude indifference, which is so remarkably prevalent in the manners of American children. Mr. Ibbertson will be benefactor to the Union, if he become the means of spreading the admirable method by which he had polished the manner, and awakened the intellect of these beautiful little Republicans. I have conversed with many American ladies on the ...

— Domestic Manners of the Americans • Fanny Trollope

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