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 Comedy is the predominant genre among the feature projects selected. — Emiliano De Pablos, Variety, 20 May 2022 Between March 1 and May 8, when omicron was the predominant strain in the United States, there were 4.8 million cases of COVID-19 among children ages 5 - 11. — Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, 19 May 2022 Right now, the predominant strand of work within Alt Intelligence is the idea of scaling. — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 19 May 2022 Extreme fear is the predominant sentiment on Wall Street this year. — David Goldman, CNN, 14 May 2022 About a third became newly seropositive since December 2021, when omicron became predominant in the U.S. — Byjennifer Henderson | Medpage Today, ABC News, 11 May 2022 However, leaders of Utah’s most predominant religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have remained silent since the news dropped. — Saige Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune, 6 May 2022 In the futures market, where traders bet on how high interest rates could go, the predominant view now is that the Fed’s benchmark rate will climb to around 2 percent by July — something that seemed unimaginable even a month ago. — New York Times, 29 Apr. 2022 Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion in Ukraine and Russia, as well as in several neighboring lands. — Peter Smith, ajc, 23 Apr. 2022 See More

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.