preponderance Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun superiority in power or influence
    • the preponderance of good over evil
    • the preponderance of wealth and power
  2. noun a superiority in numbers or amount
    prevalence.
    • a preponderance of evidence against the defendant
  3. noun exceeding in heaviness; having greater weight
    • the least preponderance in either pan will unbalance the scale

WordNet

Pre*pon"der*ance, Pre*pon"der*an*cy noun (Also<
  • Preponderance
  • Preponderancy
)
Etymology
Cf. F. prépondérance.
Definitions
  1. The quality or state of being preponderant; superiority or excess of weight, influence, or power, etc.; an outweighing.
    The mind should . . . reject or receive proportionably to the preponderancy of the greater grounds of probability. Locke.
    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. Macaulay.
  2. (Gun.) The excess of weight of that part of a canon behind the trunnions over that in front of them.

Webster 1913