Standard Lemma guide

prevalence

noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈpɹɛvələns/
  • variant: /pɹɪˈveɪləns/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: P R EH1 V AH0 L AH0 N S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The quality or condition of being prevalent; wide extension or spread.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The total number of cases of a disease in a given statistical population at a given time, divided by the number of individuals in that population.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: epidemiology, medicine, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

the quality of prevailing generally; being widespread

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he was surprised by the prevalence of optimism about the future

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: generality

Narrower terms: currency

4

noun

Meaning 4

a superiority in numbers or amount

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a preponderance of evidence against the defendant

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: preponderance

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: number, figure

5

noun

Meaning 5

(epidemiology) the ratio (for a given time period) of the number of occurrences of a disease or event to the number of units at risk in the population

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: ratio

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French prévalence.

Across languages

Translations

37 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: преобладаване (preobladavane) — wide extension
  • Bulgarian: преобладание (preobladanie) — wide extension
  • Chinese Mandarin: 流行 (liúxíng) — wide extension
  • Chinese Mandarin: 盛行 (shèngxíng) — wide extension
  • Chinese Mandarin: 普遍 (pǔbiàn) — wide extension
  • Chinese Mandarin: 廣泛 /广泛 (guǎngfàn) — wide extension
  • Dutch: het heersen — wide extension
  • Dutch: het algemeen voorkomen — wide extension
  • Dutch: verspreiding — wide extension
  • Finnish: hallitsevuus — wide extension
  • Finnish: vallitsevuus — wide extension
  • Finnish: prevalenssi — wide extension
  • French: prédominance — wide extension
  • German: weite Verbreitung — wide extension
  • German: Vorherrschen — wide extension
  • German: Verbreitetsein — wide extension
  • German: starkes Vorkommen — wide extension
  • Hindi: लौकिकता (laukiktā) — wide extension
  • Indonesian: prevalensi — wide extension
  • Irish: leitheadúlacht — wide extension
  • Romanian: prevalență — wide extension
  • Russian: преобладание (preobladanije) — wide extension
  • Serbo-Croatian: надмоћност (nadmoćnost) — wide extension
  • Spanish: prevalencia — wide extension
  • Arabic: اِنْتِشَار (intišār) — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Bulgarian: инцидентност (incidentnost) — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Dutch: overwicht — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Finnish: sairastavuus — number of cases compared to a total population
  • French: prévalence — number of cases compared to a total population
  • German: Prävalenz — number of cases compared to a total population
  • German: Kennzahl für die Häufigkeit — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Indonesian: prevalensi — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Italian: prevalenza — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Portuguese: prevalência — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Russian: распространённость (rasprostranjónnostʹ) — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Spanish: prevalencia — number of cases compared to a total population
  • Ukrainian: поши́реність (pošýrenistʹ) — number of cases compared to a total population