preference
/ˈpɹɛf(ə)ɹ(ə)ns/
preference noun: the selection of one thing or person over others (with the main adposition being "for" in relation to the thing or person, but possibly also "of").
Noun (1)
preference (countable and uncountable, plural preferences)
- The selection of one thing or person over others (with the main adposition being "for" in relation to the thing or person, but possibly also "of")
- He has a preference for crisp wines.
- The option to so select, and the one selected.
- Can I keep my preferences when I upgrade to the new version of this application?
- Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be...2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18
- The state of being preferred over others.
- A strong liking or personal valuation.
- A preferential bias; partiality; discrimination.
- Synonyms:
- predilection
Verb
preference (third-person singular simple present preferences, present participle preferencing, simple past and past participle preferenced)
- To give preferential treatment to; to give a preference to.
Noun (2)
preference (uncountable)
- Preferans, a card game, principally played in Eastern Europe.
preference meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
preference in Hindi
- selection
- प्राथमिकता prāthmiktā, वरीयता varīytā, अग्रिमता agrimtā
- state of being preferred
- प्राथमिकता prāthmiktā, वरीयता varīytā
preference in Tamil
- state of being preferred
- முன்னுரிமை muṉṉurimai
- bias
- சார்பு cārpu, பாரபட்சம் pārapaṭcam
preference in Urdu
- selection
- تَرْجِیح tarjīh
preference in Bengali
- preference
- পছন্দ pochondo
More languagesFewer languages
- preference in Telugu
- అభిరుచి abhiruci
- preference in Malayalam
- ക്രമീകരണം kramīkaraṇaṁ, മുൻഗണന muṉgaṇana
- preference in Kannada
- ಇಷ್ಟ ಪಡುವುದು, ಇಷ್ಟ, ಒಪ್ಪಿಗೆ, ಅಭಿಮಾನ
- preference in Punjabi
- ਤਰਜੀਹ tarjīh, ترجیح tarjīḥ
- preference in Assamese
- পছন্দ posond
- preference in Nepali
- वरीयता
- preference in Arabic
- تَفْضِيل tafḍīl, أَفْضَلِيَّة ʔafḍaliyya
Examples of preference in a sentence
- I abstain from this vote, as I have no particular preference.
- Mom and Dad vetoed our menu preferences for the holiday meal.
- The preference of a boy to a girl is a usual occurrence in some parts of China.
Synonyms of preference
Forms of preference
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | preferences |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | preferences |
| present participle | preferencing |
| past participle | preferenced |
| past | preferenced |
Origin of preference
From Middle French preference, from Medieval Latin preferentia. Doublet of preferans. Morphologically prefer + -ence. Compare typologically Russian предвзя́тость (predvzjátostʹ) (<< взять (vzjatʹ), a suppletive of брать (bratʹ), which is cognate with Latin ferō).
Words formed from preference
Phrases with preference
Words that rhyme with preference
Questions about preference
- What does preference mean?
- Preference means the selection of one thing or person over others (with the main adposition being "for" in relation to the thing or person, but possibly also "of").
- What is preference in Hindi?
- Preference in Hindi is प्राथमिकता (prāthmiktā), वरीयता (varīytā), अग्रिमता (agrimtā). See Preference meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is preference?
- Preference can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce preference?
- Preference is pronounced /ˈpɹɛf(ə)ɹ(ə)ns/.
- What is the plural of preference?
- The plural of preference is preferences.
Words near preference in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: preference (page history and authors); পছন্দ (Bengali) (page history and authors); preference (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ترجیح (Punjabi) (page history and authors); পছন্দ (Assamese) (page history and authors); preference (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-preference.ogg.
Cite this entry: “preference.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/preference. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.