Prevalent

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Prevalent \Prev"a*lent\, a. [L. praevalens, -entis, p. pr. of
     praevalere. See {Prevail}.]
     1. Gaining advantage or superiority; having superior force,
        influence, or efficacy; prevailing; predominant;
        successful; victorious.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              Brennus told the Roman embassadors, that prevalent
              arms were as good as any title.       --Sir W.
                                                    Raleigh.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Most generally received or current; most widely adopted or
        practiced; also, generally or extensively existing;
        widespread; prevailing; as, a prevalent observance;
        prevalent disease.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              This was the most received and prevalent opinion.
                                                    --Woodward.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Prevailing; predominant; successful; efficacious;
          powerful.
  
     Usage: {Prevalent}, {Prevailing}. What customarily prevails
            is prevalent; as, a prevalent fashion. What actually
            prevails is prevailing; as, the prevailing winds are
            west. Hence, prevailing is the livelier and more
            pointed word, since it represents a thing in action.
            It is sometimes the stronger word, since a thing may
            prevail sufficiently to be called prevalent, and yet
            require greater strength to make it actually
            prevailing.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  prevalent
       adj : encountered generally especially at the present time; "the
             prevailing opinion was that a trade war could be
             averted"; "the most prevalent religion in our area";
             "speculation concerning the books author was rife"
             [syn: {prevailing}, {rife}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  194 Moby Thesaurus words for "prevalent":
     abounding, abundant, accepted, accidental, accompanying, ado,
     affluent, afloat, afoot, all the rage, all the thing,
     all-sufficing, ample, aplenty, ascendant, at the head, average,
     being, besetting, boss, bottomless, bounteous, bountiful, catholic,
     chief, circumstantial, commanding, common, commonplace,
     conformable, consuetudinary, controlling, conventional, copious,
     current, customary, diffuse, doing, dominant, effuse, epidemic,
     established, eventuating, everyday, exhaustless, existent,
     existing, extant, extensive, extravagant, exuberant, familiar,
     fashionable, fat, fertile, flush, frequent, frequentative, full,
     galore, general, generally accepted, generous, going on, governing,
     habitual, happening, head, hegemonic, hegemonistic, hip,
     in ascendancy, in being, in charge, in chief, in effect,
     in existence, in fashion, in force, in hand, in plenty,
     in quantity, in style, in the ascendant, in the wind, in vogue,
     incidental, inexhaustible, lavish, leading, liberal, living,
     luxuriant, many, many times, master, maximal, mod, modern, much,
     new, newfashioned, normal, not rare, numerous, obtaining,
     occasional, occurring, of common occurrence, oft-repeated,
     oftentime, omnipresent, on, on foot, ongoing, opulent, ordinary,
     overbearing, overflowing, pandemic, paramount, passing, pervasive,
     plenitudinous, plenteous, plentiful, plenty, popular, predominant,
     predominate, predominating, prepollent, preponderant, preponderate,
     prepotent, prescribed, prescriptive, present, prevailing, prodigal,
     productive, profuse, profusive, rampant, received, recurrent,
     regnant, regular, regulating, regulation, regulative, regulatory,
     reigning, replete, resultant, rich, rife, riotous, routine, ruling,
     running, running over, set, smart, sovereign, standard,
     stereotyped, stock, subsistent, subsisting, superabundant, supreme,
     taking place, teeming, thick-coming, time-honored, traditional,
     trendy, ubiquitous, under the sun, under way, universal,
     up-to-date, up-to-datish, up-to-the-minute, usual, wealthy,
     well-found, well-furnished, well-provided, well-stocked, wholesale,
     widespread, wonted