Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
👍 A greater liking 🌍 A special advantage 🗳️ The right to choose
preference

preference

40 5.5
A special advantage given to one country in trade
  • noun
  • /ˈprɛfərəns/
  • Specialized
translation icon : preferencia
  • And where do these trade preferences that people have to buy only American goods come from?
  • give preference
  • grant preference
  • trade preferences

We cannot embrace the double edged sword of racial preferences and its lure of an advantage without being stigmatized as inferior.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Overall, the Uruguay Round has set a course likely to remove protection and preferences from international trade.

    Academic text (1994)

  • For future research, specific cases could be developed to explore how preferences would change in specific situations.

    Academic text (1991)

  • In short, their policy preferences are presented to the courts as matters of legal right.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The disadvantage was that they gave preference to men from their own states.

    Academic text (1991)

  • One of the issues is the American preference for light trucks and SUVs.

  • In Congress, meanwhile, some lawmakers are pushing legislation to outlaw all racial preferences in federal programs.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The Court also gave a flashing green light to minority preferences in government contracting.

    Academic text (1995)

  • Damascus remains a beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences, a program that allows poor countries to export manufactured goods.

    Academic text (1991)

  • In the 1800s, for example, Armley clothiers publicly agreed to employ Armley workers in preference to outsiders.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The government has decided to give preference to local farmers when allocating subsidies.

Synonyms

favor
vspreference
  • US
948 1.0

Good treatment that gives someone an advantage

is a formal grant of advantage often used in trade rules
precedence
vspreference
33 6.4

Being more important and put before others

is a granted advantage giving one party benefit rather than ranking by importance

Antonyms

equality
293 2.2

People have the same rights, position, and opportunities

to disadvantage
18 4.7

To make someone or something less able to succeed than others

Compounds

preference for
28 3.1

A liking for one thing over another

preference shares
  • UK
6.8

An investment that gives a fixed payment before other company investors and usually has no voting rights

How Favored

preference
  • Specialized
40 5.5
advantage
∞ 2.8
inequity
25 7.4

Surface Forms

preference singular
preferences plural

Morphology

preference = prefer (semi-transparent) = prefer + ence

Morphologically regular (prefer + -ence), but the specialized sense of a granted advantage in trade or policy is an institutional extension that learners may not infer from the verb alone.

Etymology

Preference comes from the Latin parts pre- 'before' and ferre 'to carry'. That idea of 'putting someone or something before others' explains why a trade or tax preference gives one country or company a special advantage over others.