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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

preferment.

Prior claim (on payment, or on purchasing something); the first rights to obtain a particular payment or product.

10 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/pɹɪˈfəːmənt/UK
  1. Prior claim (on payment, or on purchasing something); the first rights to obtain a particular payment or product.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  2. The fact of being pushed or advanced to a more favourable situation; furtherance, promotion (of a candidate, action, undertaking etc.).

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  3. Advancement to a higher position or office; promotion.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A position (especially in the Church of England) that provides profit or prestige.

    countable · uncountable
  5. The fact of preferring something; preference.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English preferment, preferrement, prefferment; equivalent to prefer + -ment.

noun/ˌpɹiːfəɹˈmɛnt/
  1. A mixture of flour, water and yeast that is allowed to ferment prior to another baking process.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-i Proto-Indo-European *préh₂i? Proto-Italic *prai Proto-Italic *prai- Latin prae-lbor. Middle English pre- English pre- English ferment English preferment From pre- + ferment.

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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.