Predominant

How to spell predominant

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce predominant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does predominant mean?

1. adjectiveMost common, most noticeable, or having the greatest power or influence within a group.

Predominant in a sentence

• Red was the predominant colour in the company's new branding.

• The predominant view among the board members favoured a merger.

Where does predominant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb dominari, meaning 'to rule' or 'to act as a master', which itself grew from dominus, the Latin word for a lord or household master. By the late medieval period scholars combined that verb with the prefix prae-, meaning 'before' or 'above', to form praedominari, the idea being to rule over or hold sway above everything else. English picked up the resulting adjective in the late 1500s through the Medieval Latin form praedominans, used to describe whatever is most powerful, most common, or most noticeable in a group. The same dominus root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'dominate', 'dominion', and even 'dame', so the central idea of mastery runs through the whole family. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle and end: the schwa vowels in 'dom-i-nant' tempt writers toward an '-ent' ending, but the Latin -ant suffix keeps it 'predominant'.

How the word is built

• pre- (before, over)
• domin (from Latin dominus: lord, master)
• -ant (adjective suffix)