prevalence
noun
Simple meaning
The total number of cases of a disease in a given statistical population at a given time.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prehvuhluhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹɛvələns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The quality or condition of being prevalent; wide extension or spread.
epidemiology
The total number of cases of a disease in a given statistical population at a given time, divided by the number of individuals in that population.
epidemiology
The ratio (for a given time period) of the number of occurrences of a disease or event to the number of units at risk in the population
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The quality or condition of being prevalent; wide extension or spread.
Used this way, prevalence is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prevalence
- “He was surprised by the prevalence of optimism about the future.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.