preference
pre·fe·rence
noun
- “my own preference is for good literature”
- “the Irish have a penchant for blarney”
a predisposition in favor of something
- “a predilection for expensive cars”
- “his sexual preferences”
- “showed a Marxist orientation”
grant of favor or advantage to one over another (especially to a country or countries in matters of international trade, such as levying duties)
Origin
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).
Phrases
- affectional preference
- in preference to
- preference cascade
- preference share
- preference stock
- revealed preference
- sexual preference
- time preference
Related words
Word family
Broader terms
Narrower terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.