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prevalent

UK/ˈpɹɛvələnt/US/ˈpɹɛvələnt/
adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,879 of 15,258mostly written

Prevalent means widespread, found in many places. A prevalent view, prevalent among young people, increasingly prevalent.

In epidemiology it has a precise counterpart: prevalence is how many people have a condition at a moment, and incidence is how many newly get it — the two are constantly confused in reporting. Elsewhere the word simply means common. Note that the Latin means having greater strength.

Definitions of prevalent

  1. 1adjectiveprevalentWidespread and found in many places.B2+

    “Malaria is still prevalent in many tropical countries.”

    synonyms: widespread, common

prevalent is a quality of being common.

Where it comes from

Latin praevalens is the participle of praevalere, to have greater power — prae plus valere, to be strong. Value and valiant come from the same strength.

  1. Latin

    praevalēns

  2. English, today

    prevalent

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Academic English

Practise this word

prevalent in the wild

  • The first term is prevalent in the United Kingdom, the second is prevalent in the Commonwealth, and the third one is prevalent in the United States.

    Law commission

  • Later, with the increase in rectangular windows they became more prevalent in domestic architecture.

    Hood mould

  • Gaarudi Gombe is a folk dance prevalent in the state of Karnataka, India.

    Gaarudi Gombe

  • Although polygamy is officially illegal in Angola, the practice is known to be widely socially acceptable and very prevalent among the Angolan population.

    Polygamy in Angola

  • Many Uzbek dishes were incorporated into Crimean Tatar national cuisine during exile in Central Asia since 1944, and these dishes have become prevalent in Crimea since the return.

    Crimean Tatar cuisine

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.