prefer
verb
pre·fer
| \ pri-ˈfər
\
\
preferred;
preferring
Definition of prefer
1
: to promote or advance to a rank or position
2
: to like better or best
prefers sports to reading prefers to watch TV
3
: to give (a creditor) priority
5
: to bring or lay against someone
won't prefer charges
6
: to bring forward or lay before one for consideration
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Synonyms for prefer
Synonyms
care (for), favor, lean (toward or towards), like
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Examples of prefer in a Sentence
Some people like vanilla ice cream, but I prefer chocolate.
She tends to prefer small college campuses.
I prefer this dictionary because of its helpful examples.
Which one is the preferred alternative?
What is the preferred pronunciation of her name?
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Recent Examples on the Web
But if kids of all ages prefer to learn this way then that’s how educational institutions that plan to be around will teach them. — Adam Lashinsky, Fortune, "Why Harvard and Yale Students Can Skip This Computer Science Class—Data Sheet," 3 Sep. 2019 The Academy opened in 2013 to serve students in grades 9-12 that prefer a different learning setting or didn’t do well at the freshman or senior high schools. — Cincinnati.com, "Fairfield schools make room for middle schoolers with academy expansion," 26 Aug. 2019 Sara Haider, who works on building conversational experiments in twttr, says that 80 percent of users prefer the more focused experience to capital-T Twitter. — Arielle Pardes, WIRED, "At Twitter, It Seems No One Can Hear the Screams," 15 Aug. 2019 Hathaway is relatively private about her family life, preferring to keep photos on social media geared towards her career and advocacy work — so this announcement is a pretty big deal. — Kaitlin Reilly, refinery29.com, "Anne Hathaway Just Announced She's Pregnant In Rare Personal Instagram," 25 July 2019 Gatewood and Nix will compete for the starting job during fall camp, and one will emerge ahead of the Tigers’ opener against Oregon next month, with Malzahn preferring to name a starter sooner rather than later. — Tom Green | [email protected], al.com, "The biggest lessons veteran SEC quarterbacks learned from starting as freshmen," 25 July 2019 Young tiger sharks who had their stomachs pumped were found to prefer terrestrial songbirds to seabirds. — Rafil Kroll-zaidi, Harper's magazine, "Findings," 22 July 2019 The jihadist group prefers kidnapping children to vaccinating them. — The Economist, "Africa is on the verge of being declared polio-free," 24 Aug. 2019 The Kitchen prefers to flaunt the fact that its plot features women in power. — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, "The Cheap Thrills of The Kitchen and Why Women Kill," 19 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'prefer.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for prefer
prefer
verb
English Language Learners Definition of prefer
: to like (someone or something) better than someone or something else
law
: to make (a charge) against someone in a court of law
See the full definition for prefer in the English Language Learners Dictionary
prefer
verb
pre·fer
| \ pri-ˈfər
\
\
preferred;
preferring
Kids Definition of prefer
: to like better than another or others
She prefers chocolate ice cream.
prefer
transitive verb
pre·fer
| \ pri-ˈfər
\
\
preferred;
preferring
Legal Definition of prefer
1
: to give (a creditor or debt) priority or preference
any preferred charges such as child support or alimony — In re Smiley, 427 P.2d 179 (1967)
2
: to bring forward for determination
especially
: to bring (a charge) against someone
the various means by which a grand jury might prefer charges — State v. Byrd, 399 S.E.2d 267 (1990)