Definition of PREDOMINANT

Choose the Right Synonym for predominant

dominant, predominant, paramount, preponderant mean superior to all others in influence or importance. dominant applies to something that is uppermost because ruling or controlling. a dominant social class predominant applies to something that exerts, often temporarily, the most marked influence. a predominant emotion paramount implies supremacy in importance, rank, or jurisdiction. unemployment was the paramount issue in the campaign preponderant applies to an element or factor that outweighs all others in influence or effect. preponderant evidence in her favor

Predominant vs. Predominate

Predominant and predominate are synonymous adjectives. Predominant is the older and much more common form. A number of handbooks and commentators hold predominate to be a mistake—a few insisting that the word is only a verb. But they are wrong. As an adjective predominate is somewhat more likely to turn up in technical writing than in general writing. The adverbs predominantly and predominately are a more even match in frequency than their base adjectives are, although predominantly is still significantly more common than predominately.

Examples of predominant in a Sentence

Religion is the predominant theme of the play. She is predominant among new writers.

Recent Examples on the Web

The hits keep coming and so do the bruises, black and blue like the predominant uniform colors of the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues. — Houston Mitchell, latimes.com, "The Sports Report: UCLA brings the softball title home," 5 June 2019 Expect that to be a predominant storyline if FSU makes it to Omaha. — Gentry Estes, The Courier-Journal, "Morning Coffee: Picks for the NCAA Super Regionals, including Louisville baseball vs. ECU," 3 June 2019 The predominant sound, aside from Frank Ocean coming through the speakers, is the big, warm laugh of Abloh, a man who appears to be utterly relaxed and happy with just 24 hours to go before Off-White’s fall 2019 ready-to-wear show. — Jonathan Van Meter, Vogue, "“My Job Is To Be a Spirit Leader”: Behind the Scenes with Virgil Abloh," 14 May 2019 An homage to the brand’s early packaging, the packaging for the trio of products has ivory white as the predominant color and a stylized version of the Grand Turk sails front and center. — Adam Tschorn, latimes.com, "As Father's Day approaches, a vintage Old Spice bottle sheds new light on my departed dad," 8 June 2018 In demographically shrinking Europe, Protestant megachurches already seem to be fairly absent from the south of the continent where Catholicism is predominant. — Rick Noack, Washington Post, "How Billy Graham-inspired megachurches are taking over the world," 21 Feb. 2018 Still, Office 365 is still the predominant office suite within Windows, and this collaboration offers users flexibility that wasn’t there before. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Slack now integrates with Office 365, pushing Office docs and email reminders into your chat," 9 Apr. 2019 In Hinduism, the country’s predominant religion, gods transform into goddesses and men become pregnant. — New York Times, "India’s Supreme Court Considers Decriminalizing Gay Sex," 10 July 2018 Although the predominant flu virus changes from year to year — or even within the course of a single season — the CDC works with pharmaceutical companies on predicting those strains as best as possible. — Caroline Picard, Good Housekeeping, "No, The Flu Shot Won't Give You the Flu — But Here’s Why You Might Feel Sick Afterwards," 19 Oct. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'predominant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.