prevalent

Syllables: pre·v·a·lentUK/ˈpɹɛvələnt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈpɹevələnt/

prevalent adjective: widespread or preferred.

Adjective

prevalent (comparative more prevalent, superlative most prevalent)

Widespread or preferred.
- Athletes' use of herbal supplements has skyrocketed in the past two decades. At the top of the list of popular herbs are echinacea and ginseng, whereas garlic, St. John's wort, soybean, ephedra and others are also surging in popularity or have been historically prevalent.2013 March, David S. Senchina, “Athletics and Herbal Supplements”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 2, archived from the original on 16 May 2013, page 134
Synonyms:

common
Superior in frequency or dominant.
- Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.[…]Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster. Clever financial ploys are what have made billionaires of the industry’s veterans. “Operational improvement” in a portfolio company has often meant little more than promising...2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

Noun

prevalent (plural prevalents)

A species that is prevalent in a certain area.
- The species I found to be most prevalent on the Spring Green study site were compared with lists of prevalents in compositionally related communities of Wisconsin developed by Curtis (1959).1983, Donna K. McBain, Influence of Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus Virginiana L.) on Soil Properties and Vegetative Composition of a Sand Prairie in Southwestern Wisconsin, page 26

prevalent meaning in Marathi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

prevalent in Marathi

prevalent, preponderant: प्रधान pradhān

prevalent in Urdu

جاری, مقبول, رائج

prevalent in Bengali

প্রচলিত

prevalent in Malayalam

പ്രചാരത്തിലിരിക്കുന്ന, വ്യാപകമായ, മുഖ്യമായ

More languagesFewer languages

prevalent in Kannada: ಯಾವಾಗಿನ, ಎಂದಿನ, ನಡವಳಿಕೆಯ, ಎಲ್ಲೆಡೆಯ
prevalent in Punjabi: ਪ੍ਰਚੱਲਿਤ, ਪ੍ਰਚੱਲਤ
prevalent in Arabic: مُنْتَشِر muntašir
prevalent in Vietnamese: phổ biến, thông thường, thông dụng, thịnh hành

Examples of prevalent in a sentence

Bisexuality is thought to be the most prevalent plurisexuality but other identities, like pansexuality, are also common.
An antithiamine factor has antithiamine activity, and may cause thiamine deficiency if it is too prevalent.
Corks remain prevalent, but nowadays the wine industry also offers plenty of screw caps, too, for occasions that warrant them or customers who prefer them.

All 40 example sentences with prevalent

Synonyms of prevalent

common
rife

Forms of prevalent

Adjective
comparative	more prevalent
superlative	most prevalent
alternative form	prævalent
alternative form	prevailent
Noun
plural	prevalents

Origin of prevalent

From Latin praevalēns. By surface analysis, pre- + -valent.

Words formed from prevalent

Questions about prevalent

What does prevalent mean?: Prevalent means widespread or preferred.
What is prevalent in Marathi?: Prevalent in Marathi is प्रधान (pradhān). See Prevalent meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is prevalent?: Prevalent can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce prevalent?: Prevalent is pronounced /ˈpɹɛvələnt/ (UK).

Words near prevalent in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: prevalent (page history and authors); प्रधान (Marathi) (page history and authors); prevalent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prevalent (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prevalent (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prevalent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); prevalent (Punjabi, 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-prevalent.ogg.

Cite this entry: “prevalent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prevalent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.