Word.ws English Dictionary

preferential attachment

preferential attachment noun: a positive feedback cycle where the more connected nodes in a graph are more likely to receive new links.

Noun

preferential attachment (countable and uncountable, plural preferential attachments)

  1. A positive feedback cycle where the more connected nodes in a graph are more likely to receive new links.
    • Aided by preferential attachment and network effects (the phenomenon of a good or service becoming more valuable the more people who use it), a handful of winners emerge, overshadowing other available options.2014, Astra Taylor, chapter 4, in The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN

Forms of preferential attachment

pluralpreferential attachments

Origin of preferential attachment

Coined by Albert-László Barabási and Réka Albert.

Questions about preferential attachment

What does preferential attachment mean?
Preferential attachment means a positive feedback cycle where the more connected nodes in a graph are more likely to receive new links.
What part of speech is preferential attachment?
Preferential attachment is a noun.
What is the plural of preferential attachment?
The plural of preferential attachment is preferential attachments.

Words near preferential attachment in the dictionary

  1. preferenda
  2. preferendum
  3. preferendums
  4. preferent
  5. preferential
  6. preferential attachment
  7. preferential attachments
  8. preferential treatment
  9. preferential voting
  10. preferentialities
  11. preferentiality

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preferential attachment (page history and authors). 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.

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