prevalence

noun prev·a·lence \ ˈpre-və-lən(t)s , ˈprev-lən(t)s \

|Updated on: 17 Aug 2018

Examples: prevalence in a Sentence

Definition of prevalence

1 : the quality or state of being prevalent

2 : the degree to which something is prevalent; especially : the percentage of a population that is affected with a particular disease at a given time

See prevalence defined for kids

Examples of prevalence in a Sentence

the prevalence of rumors when hard information is withheld from the public

Recent Examples of prevalence from the Web

One trend in health insurance in recent years is the prevalence of high-deductible plans which means that policy holders must pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars out-of-pocket before their coverage kicks in.

— jenny deam, Houston Chronicle, "Texans missing or delaying needed treatment because health costs too high," 12 July 2018
This has lead to the prevalence of game engines (and games) that are almost trivial to release on console and PC.

— david grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Microsoft Might Add Mouse and Keyboard Support to the Xbox," 26 June 2018
The report comes as Facebook faces increasing pressure to explain the prevalence of troubling content.

— nitasha tiku, WIRED, "How Much Sex, Violence and Hate Speech Is on Facebook?," 15 May 2018
Meanwhile, the prevalence of depression among the 17,039 who didn’t take any of these medications was 4.7%.

— karen kaplan, latimes.com, "Are prescription medications making Americans depressed?," 12 June 2018
But many of the trial’s 574 participants reported having visual aberrations and dry eyes before surgery, and the study concluded that Lasik slightly reduced the prevalence of these problems.

— New York Times, "Blurred Vision, Burning Eyes: This Is a Lasik Success?," 11 June 2018
Studies in Europe have found the prevalence of eating disorders is higher among athletes, especially in sports that emphasize lean bodies such as running.

— kelyn soong, chicagotribune.com, "Runners spread awarness about eating disorders in their sport," 7 June 2018
But as long as attending an elite college continues to yield benefits, reducing the prevalence of undermatching will remain imperative.

— adam harris, The Atlantic, "When Disadvantaged Students Overlook Elite Colleges," 18 Apr. 2018
This year, a survey of 209 high school students in Baltimore confirmed the prevalence of violence in their lives.

— dan rodricks, baltimoresun.com, "Where have you gone, Mister Rogers?," 13 July 2018

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