preferential

English

Alternative forms

• preferrential

Etymology

From Medieval Latin preferentia +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɛf.ɜː(ɹ)ˌɛn.ʃəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

preferential (comparative more preferential, superlative most preferential)

1. Of or relating to the showing or giving of preference.

   Club members received preferential seating.

   preferential treatment

   • 2025 October 17, J.D. Morris, Michael Barba, quoting Jackie Fielder, “A tech firm with ties to Mayor Lurie got a big city contract. Did it get preferential treatment?”, in San Francisco Chronicle‎^[1]:

     “I’m concerned that the city is being exposed to real risks of conflicts of interest, and that billionaire tech bros with connections to the mayor’s office are getting preferential treatment,” Fielder said in a statement to the Chronicle.

2. Of or relating to a voting system in which the voters are allowed to indicate on their ballots their preference (usually their first and second choices) between two or more candidates, so that if no candidate receives a majority of first choices the one receiving the greatest number of first and second choices together is the winner.

   preferential voting; the preferential system

Derived terms

• antipreferential
• nonpreferential
• nonpreferentially
• preferential attachment
• preferentiality
• preferentially
• preferential treatment
• preferential voting
• unpreferential
• unpreferentially

Translations

relating to preference

• Catalan: preferent
• Finnish: suosiva (fi), etuus-
• French: préférentiel (fr)
• German: vorrangig (de)
• Greek: προτιμησιακός (el) (protimisiakós)
• Irish: fabhrach
• Italian: preferenziale (it), di favore
• Portuguese: preferencial (pt)
• Russian: льго́тный (ru) (lʹgótnyj)
• Spanish: preferente, preferencial