preference

1. 1.

   a strong liking

   “my own preference is for good literature”

   “the Irish have a penchant for blarney”

   Synonymspenchantpredilectiontaste

   Broaderliking

   Narroweracquired tasteweakness
2. 2.

   a predisposition in favor of something

   “a predilection for expensive cars”

   “his sexual preferences”

   “showed a Marxist orientation”

   Synonymspredilectionorientation

   Broaderpredisposition
3. 3.

   the right or chance to choose

   “given my druthers, I'd eat cake”

   Synonymsdruthers

   Broaderoption

   Narrowerwish
4. 4.

   grant of favor or advantage to one over another (especially to a country or countries in matters of international trade, such as levying duties)

   Broaderadvantage

Other forms of preference

plural

preferences·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about preference

What does preference mean?

preference means "a strong liking". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in preference?

preference has 3 syllables: pref-e-rence. The stress falls on "pref". In IPA it is /ˈpɹɛfɚəns/.

What is another word for preference?

Close synonyms include penchant, predilection, taste, predilection, orientation. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is preference a common word?

preference is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.