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Majority vs Preponderance - What's the difference?

majority | preponderance |

As nouns the difference between majority and preponderance

is that majority is more than half (50%) of some group while preponderance is excess or superiority of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing.

majority

English

(wikipedia majority)

Noun

(majorities)
  • More than half (50%) of some group
    • The majority agreed that the new proposal was the best.
    Those opposing the building plans were in the majority , so the building project was canceled.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1920, title=, author=Champ Clark
    • , passage=But in 1912 the American people gave the Democrats another opportunity, and under the leadership of Woodrow Wilson we swept the country from sea to sea. At the end of that historic contest we had the Presidency, the Senate by a working majority, and the House by an overwhelming majority.}}
  • The difference between the winning vote and the rest of the votes
    • The winner with 53% had a 6% majority over the loser with 47%.
  • (dated) Legal adulthood
    • By the time I reached my majority , I had already been around the world twice.
  • (UK) The office held by a member of the armed forces in the rank of major
    • On receiving the news of his promotion, Charles Snodgrass said he was delighted to be entering his majority .
  • Ancestors; ancestry.

    • Usage notes

    * Majority in the sense of "more than half" is used with countable nouns only; for example, "The majority of the members of the committee were in favour of the motion." It is incorrect to use with it uncountable nouns, as in "The majority of the world is covered with water." In the latter case, it is preferable to use expressions such as "the larger part of" or "most of" instead of the "the majority of",

    Antonyms

    * (more than half) minority

    Derived terms

    * by a majority * dictatorship of the majority * double majority * majority leader * majority rule * silent majority * simple majority * supermajority * tyranny of the majority

    Related terms

    * major * plurality

    See also

    * most

    preponderance

    English

    Alternative forms

    *

    Noun

  • Excess or superiority of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing.
  • * Macaulay
    • In a few weeks he had changed the relative position of all the states in Europe, and had restored the equilibrium which the preponderance of one power had destroyed.
  • *
  • * 1900 , Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams'', ''Avon Books , (translated by James Strachey) pg. 168:
    • But even less disgruntled observers have insisted that pain and un-pleasure are more common in dreams than pleasure: for instance, Scholz (1893, 57), Volkelt (1875, 80), and others. Indeed two ladies, Florence Hallam and Sarah Weed (1896, 499), have actually given statistical expression, based on a study of their own dreams, to the preponderance of unpleasure in dreaming.
  • (obsolete) The excess of weight of that part of a cannon behind the trunnions over that in front of them.
  • The greater portion of the weight.
  • *
  • The majority.
  • *

    • References

    * *