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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

prefer.

To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb[pɹɪˈfɝ]General-American[pɹɪˈfɜː]Received-Pronunciation[pɹɪˈfəː]Australia, British, Southern, Standard[pɹɪˈfɚ(ɹ)]Canada
  1. To be in the habit of choosing something rather than something else; to favor; to like better.

    transitive
    I prefer tea to coffee.
    I'd prefer it if you didn't do it.
  2. To advance, promote (someone or something).

    dated · transitive
  3. To present or submit (something) to an authority (now usually in "to prefer charges").

    transitive
  4. To put forward for acceptance; to introduce, recommend (to).

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English preferren, from Anglo-Norman preferer, from Latin praeferō. Displaced native Old English foresettan and foreberan. Doublet of prelate. See also infer, relate and refer, delate and defer, as well as collate and confer among others.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.