Make Your Point: PREPONDERANCE

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pronounce PREPONDERANCE:

preh PON dur unts

connect this word to others:

In its most literal sense, to preponderate is to outweigh: to be heavier than anything else, to out___k everything else.

And in one its rare senses, to preponderate is to ponder something beforehand: to think it over carefully, weighing the options, before taking action. (Emphasis on weighing! As we see in lots of English words that come from Latin pendere, "to hang, to weigh, to pay," we often use the idea of weighing something as a metaphor for thinking it through.)

But most of the time, when you see a form of preponderate, it's the noun, preponderance; and it means "a majority: a state of being greater in number than anything else." Let's explore that!

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definition:

"Preponderance" and its other forms, like "preponderate," trace back to the Latin word praeponderare, meaning "to make heavier, or to weigh more than something else." In those words, the prefix "pre-" means "before, in the physical sense," and the rest traces back to pondus, Latin for "weight," and further back to pendere, "to weigh, or to hang."

In English, to "preponderate" first just meant "to outweigh," as in "The good must greatly preponderate the evil" (Abraham Tucker, 1768). Figurative senses developed from there, so "preponderate" also came to mean "to outweigh morally," "to outweigh intellectually," or "to outweigh in persuasiveness."

These days we don't often use the verb "preponderate." But we do use the noun, "preponderance," which can literally mean "greatness of weight: a state of weighing more than other things," but more often figuratively means "greatness of number, amount, or persuasiveness."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind, and we usually use the singular: "There was a preponderance of evidence;" "The menu is a mix of light appetizers and heavy main dishes, with a preponderance of pastas."

Other forms:

None are common today. But if you need an adjective, there's "preponderant."

how to use it:

"Preponderance" is a formal, serious, common word that helps you emphasize how certain people or things are abundant and powerful, excessive and problematic, or just popular. Say that there's a preponderance of those people or things.

You might pick the word "preponderance" instead of "majority" when you want to emphasize how people have power and influence because there's so many of them, like this: "A preponderance of the freshmen on campus came from private high schools and were better prepared for the work."

Or, you might pick "preponderance" to complain when there's too much of something. A writer for the New York Times, for example, complained about a "film’s preponderance of flabby men in saggy underwear."

Or, you might pick it just to point out how common or popular something is. For example, a writer for the Guardian pointed out "the preponderance of films in recent years featuring strong female leads, such as Trainwreck, Bridesmaids, The Hunger Games franchise or even Mamma Mia!"

examples:

"This museum's collection... has been criticized for a preponderance of white, male, blue-chip artists."
— Scott Reyburn, New York Times, 10 May 2019

"What about the preponderance of scantily clad women in [Sin City: A Dame to Kill For]? What should we see... in how the author is rendering his female characters?"
— Michael Cavna, Washington Post, 21 August 2014

has this page helped you understand "preponderance"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "preponderance" without saying "bulk" or "predominance."

try it out:

Some people have complained about "the preponderance of unwieldy menus" at restaurants, the kind that are "poster-sized" or "heavy and book-like."

I find that example particularly amusing because the preponderance is both literal (the menus are heavy) and figurative (the menus are in lots of restaurants these days).

Also, it's quite the first-world problem, right?

What's something that you, too, might bemoan the preponderance of? (Your complaint can be petty, like the bulky menus, or serious.) Is this preponderance literal, figurative, or both?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "CLICKBAIT THIS!"

Summon your creativity and dismiss your sense of decency as you invent a clickbaity description: one that's urgent, exaggerated, ungrammatical, conspiratorial, utterly false, emotionally abrasive, vaguely revelatory, full of feigned shock, and/or bloated with capital letters, question marks, exclamation points, and/or emojis. Get in there and be shameless.

If you're sufficiently disgusted with your clickbait, share it with a friend and see if they can guess its subject. I'll also share mine with you to see if you can guess it.

Clickbait this today: A holiday or milestone of your choice.

Try guessing my holiday or milestone: AFTER A YEAR OF PRIMAL SCREAMS (!!!), IT EMITS THIS ONE WORD AND ONLOOKERS LOSE THEIR %*@)(N MINDS

Scroll all the way down for the answer to mine.

review this word:

1. The opposite of a PREPONDERANCE could be

A. a STAGE.
B. a STOPPAGE.
C. a SHORTAGE.

2. To complain about the preponderance of pumpkin spice products is to complain that they're _____.

A. too sweet
B. too common
C. too expensive

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
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How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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