📖 P — The English dictionary · page 53

preferential — Everyday, meaning 1: Preferential means giving one person or group better treatment than others.↗ Example: The teacher's son should not get preferential treatment.↗ · Members got preferential prices for tickets.↗ · It is unfair to give preferential treatment to friends.↗ · Older people get preferential seats on the bus.↗ · The club had preferential booking for families.↗ · Should the captain get preferential treatment?↗ No, everyone should be treated fairly.↗

preferentially — Everyday, meaning 1: (formal) In a way that gives one person or thing better treatment than others: «Members are served preferentially.».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (science, formal) More often or more strongly than other choices: «Bees preferentially visit blue flowers.».↗ Example: Some shops treat loyal customers preferentially.↗ · The plant preferentially grows towards the light.↗ · Water preferentially flows down the steepest slope.↗ · It is unfair if the teacher marks friends preferentially.↗ · Mosquitoes preferentially bite some people more than others.↗ · Older passengers are seated preferentially on this bus.↗

preferred — Everyday, meaning 1: Preferred means liked one thing more than another.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: As an adjective, preferred means the one that is chosen or liked best.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (formal) In a job advert, «preferred» means wanted but not required.↗ Example: I preferred the book to the film.↗ · Most pupils preferred pizza to pasta.↗ · She preferred to walk rather than take the bus.↗ · In the survey, 18 of 30 pupils preferred apples, so 12 preferred something else.↗ · Write your preferred name on the form.↗ · Cats are preferred as pets in our street.↗ · Experience in sport is preferred but not required.↗ (formal)↗ · We both loved the same Fairy, but she preferred me.↗ · Certain translators have preferred to render otyot yesod as 'elemental letters' by analogy with the Greek term.↗ (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation)↗ · My reading according to a manuscript of Rabbi Isaac Luria, which I have preferred to all others, is thus: (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877)↗

prefix — Everyday, meaning 1: A prefix is a group of letters added to the start of a word to make a new word with a different meaning, like un- in «unhappy», re- in «redo» or pre- in «preview».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To prefix something is to add a word, letters or numbers in front of it.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: In maths and science, prefixes on units show size: kilo- means a thousand (kilometre), centi- means a hundredth (centimetre), milli- means a thousandth (millimetre).↗ Everyday, meaning 4: A phone prefix (dialling code) is the numbers you dial before a phone number.↗ Everyday, meaning 5: To prefix a book or story can also mean to put an introduction or note at its very start.↗ Example: Add the prefix un- to «tidy» to make «untidy».↗ · The prefix re- means «again», as in «rewrite».↗ · «Impossible» uses the prefix im-.↗ · Kilo- is a prefix meaning a thousand, so a kilogram is 1,000 grams.↗ · The prefix sub- means under, like in «submarine».↗ · Circle the prefix in «disappear».↗ · Milli- means one thousandth, so there are 1,000 millimetres in a metre.↗ · To call another country, you prefix the number with its code.↗ · This introduction is almost identical with that prefixed to the German story of "Allerleirauh,"[195] except in so far as the puppets are concerned.↗

preform — Everyday, meaning 1: (technical) A preform is an object that has been partly shaped before its final shape, such as the small plastic tube that is blown up into a drinks bottle.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (verb, rare) To preform is to shape something beforehand.↗ Example: Plastic bottles start as small preforms.↗ · The machine heats the preform and blows it into a bottle.↗ · We looked at a preform in technology class.↗ · The preform looks like a thick test tube.↗ · Glass fibre is pulled from a preform.↗ · A preform is heated until it is soft.↗

preggers — Everyday, meaning 1: (slang, UK) pregnant.↗ Example: Guess what — she's preggers!↗ · My sister's preggers with twins.↗ · Is she preggers or has she just eaten a lot?↗ · Auntie Jo is preggers again.↗ · «Preggers» is a jokey word, not for a doctor's letter.↗ · The gossip at school was that the teacher was preggers.↗

pregnancy — Everyday, meaning 1: The time when a woman or a female animal has a baby growing inside her body.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The state of being pregnant.↗ Example: Mum was tired during her pregnancy.↗ · A human pregnancy lasts about nine months.↗ · An elephant's pregnancy lasts about 22 months.↗ · Pregnant women go to the doctor for check-ups during pregnancy.↗ · My aunt announced her pregnancy at dinner.↗ · Smoking is harmful during pregnancy.↗

pregnant — Everyday, meaning 1: A woman or female animal is pregnant when a baby (or babies) is growing inside her body before it is born.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A pregnant pause is a silence full of meaning, when everyone waits for what comes next.↗ Example: My aunt is pregnant, and the baby is due in spring.↗ · Please give your seat to the pregnant lady.↗ · Our cat is pregnant and will have kittens soon.↗ · A human baby grows for about nine months while the mother is pregnant.↗ · Pregnant women should not lift very heavy things.↗ · There was a pregnant pause before the teacher read out the winner.↗ · Elephants stay pregnant for almost two years.↗

prehensile — Everyday, meaning 1: (science) Prehensile means able to grip, hold or wrap around things, used about a body part such as a tail, foot, trunk or lip.↗ Example: Spider monkeys have prehensile tails that can hold branches.↗ · A seahorse wraps its prehensile tail around seaweed.↗ · A chameleon uses its prehensile tail like an extra hand.↗ · An elephant's trunk is prehensile; it can pick up a single peanut.↗ · The possum hung from the tree by its prehensile tail.↗ · A giraffe's long prehensile tongue pulls leaves off branches.↗ · Our thumbs make our hands prehensile.↗

prehistoric — Everyday, meaning 1: Prehistoric means from the very long time before people wrote things down, so before written history began.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal, humorous) Prehistoric can also mean very old-fashioned or out of date.↗ Example: Stonehenge was built in prehistoric times.↗ · Prehistoric people painted animals on cave walls.↗ · Dinosaurs were prehistoric reptiles.↗ · We found a prehistoric flint tool in the museum.↗ · Woolly mammoths were prehistoric animals that lived in the Ice Age.↗ · (humorous) Dad's phone is prehistoric — it can't even take photos!↗ · Archaeologists dig up prehistoric bones to learn how people lived.↗

prehistory — Everyday, meaning 1: The very long time in the past before people wrote things down, so we learn about it from things they left behind, like tools, bones and cave paintings.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The early beginnings of something: the prehistory of computers.↗ Example: Stonehenge was built in prehistory.↗ · We are learning about British prehistory, from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.↗ · Archaeologists dig up tools to learn about prehistory.↗ · Cave paintings tell us about life in prehistory.↗ · Prehistory ended at different times in different places.↗ · The museum has a gallery on prehistory.↗

prejudice — Everyday, meaning 1: An unfair opinion about a person or group, made before you know them, often because of their skin colour, religion, where they come from, or how they look.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To prejudice someone means to make them have an unfair opinion before they know the facts.↗ Example: Prejudice means judging people before you know them.↗ · It is prejudice to think girls cannot play football.↗ · The book is about a boy who faces prejudice at his new school.↗ · We talked about how to stand up to prejudice.↗ · He was prejudiced against the new team because they came from another town.↗ · Getting to know people helps to break down prejudice.↗ · Martin Luther King Jr. worked to end prejudice against Black Americans.↗ · Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one’s prejudices.”↗

preliminary — Everyday, meaning 1: Preliminary means coming before the main part and getting ready for it.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A preliminary is a first step or early round, such as a heat in a competition.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (formal) Preliminaries are things done before the main business, such as greetings.↗ Example: We did a preliminary test before the real experiment.↗ · Our team won the preliminary round.↗ · The preliminary results look good.↗ · After the preliminaries, the meeting began.↗ · A preliminary drawing helps you plan a picture.↗ · (formal) Preliminary findings indicate an increase in rainfall.↗ · He skipped the preliminaries and got straight to the point.↗ · The preliminary heats are in the morning.↗ · Some stories start off without any preliminary formula, or with a simple "Well, there was once a ----".↗

premature — Everyday, meaning 1: Happening or done too early, before the right time.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (of a baby) Born too early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy.↗ Example: My cousin was born premature and spent weeks in hospital.↗ · It's premature to say who will win; the game isn't over.↗ · Premature babies are often very small.↗ · The celebration was premature; the other team scored.↗ · Smoking can cause premature ageing of the skin.↗ · The scientist warned against premature conclusions.↗ · Phineus had been punished by the gods with premature old age and blindness for having abused the gift of prophecy.↗

prematurely — Everyday, meaning 1: Too early; before the usual or proper time: «The baby was born prematurely.».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Before you have enough facts or before you are ready: «Don't celebrate prematurely.».↗ Example: My cousin was born prematurely and spent weeks in hospital.↗ · The match ended prematurely because of the storm.↗ · The striker celebrated prematurely and the goal was disallowed.↗ · His hair went prematurely grey when he was thirty.↗ · The flowers opened prematurely in the warm February.↗ · Don't judge the book prematurely; read to the end.↗ · The firework went off prematurely, so everyone stepped back.↗

premeditated — Everyday, meaning 1: Planned or thought about carefully beforehand, especially a crime or a bad act.↗ Example: The judge said the attack was premeditated.↗ · It wasn't an accident; it was premeditated.↗ · The burglary was premeditated; they had studied the house for weeks.↗ · A premeditated lie is worse than a mistake.↗ · In the detective story, the murder was carefully premeditated.↗ · The prank was premeditated, not spur-of-the-moment.↗

premier — Everyday, meaning 1: A premier is the leader of a government, especially a prime minister; in Canada and Australia, a premier leads a province or state government.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Premier (adjective) means the best, the most important or the first: «a premier hotel», «the Premier League».↗ Everyday, meaning 3: A premier league or division is the top level of a sport.↗ Example: The Premier of Queensland spoke about the floods.↗ · Ontario's premier met the prime minister of Canada.↗ · Our team wants to play in the Premier League one day.↗ · This is the premier event of the school year.↗ · The Chinese premier visited Europe.↗ · The premier division is the highest level of the league.↗

premise — Everyday, meaning 1: A premise is an idea or fact that an argument or plan is based on.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The premise of a story or film is its basic idea.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Premises (plural) means a building and the land around it, such as a shop or school.↗ Example: The premise of the story is a boy who can fly.↗ · No dogs are allowed on the premises.↗ · If the premise is wrong, the conclusion may be wrong too.↗ · The shop moved to new premises.↗ · «All cats have tails» is a premise in the argument.↗ · Smoking is not allowed on school premises.↗

premises — Everyday, meaning 1: Premises are the buildings and land that a business, school or organisation uses.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: «Premises» (plural of «premise») are ideas or statements that an argument is built on.↗ Example: No dogs are allowed on the premises.↗ · Pupils must not leave the school premises at lunchtime.↗ · The shop moved to bigger premises.↗ · Smoking is not permitted on these premises.↗ (formal)↗ · The police searched the premises.↗ · The café has a car park on the premises.↗

premium — Everyday, meaning 1: (money) An amount paid regularly for insurance.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: An extra amount paid on top of the usual price.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: adjective Of high quality and usually more expensive: «premium ice cream».↗ Everyday, meaning 4: at a premium Hard to find and so in great demand: «Space is at a premium in our flat.».↗ Everyday, meaning 5: put a premium on Treat something as very important.↗ Example: Mum pays an insurance premium every month for the car.↗ · Premium tickets cost more but you sit at the front.↗ · We bought the premium ice cream for the party.↗ · Seats were at a premium at the school concert.↗ · Our coach puts a premium on teamwork.↗ · Dad filled up with premium petrol.↗ · You pay a premium for fruit that is out of season.↗

premolar — Everyday, meaning 1: One of the teeth between the pointed canine teeth and the big flat molars at the back of the mouth; premolars have two points and help crush food.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (adjective) To do with these teeth.↗ Example: Premolars sit between your canines and your molars.↗ · An adult has eight premolars, two on each side of each jaw.↗ · The dentist said my premolar needs a filling.↗ · Premolars help to crush food before you swallow.↗ · Children's milk teeth include molars but no premolars.↗ · Sometimes premolars are taken out to make room before braces.↗

preoccupation — Everyday, meaning 1: A state of thinking about one thing so much that you hardly notice other things: «In his preoccupation, he missed the bus.».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Something that fills your mind all the time, a worry or strong interest: «Football is his main preoccupation.».↗ Example: Her preoccupation with the test made her forget her lunch.↗ · Winning the cup was the team's only preoccupation.↗ · Dad's main preoccupation is paying the bills.↗ · His preoccupation with his phone annoyed his gran.↗ · The writer's great preoccupation was the sea.↗ · In her preoccupation she walked straight past her friend.↗

preoccupied — Everyday, meaning 1: Thinking so much about one thing, often a worry, that you do not notice what is around you: «She looked preoccupied.».↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (verb, past) Filled someone's mind: «The problem preoccupied him all week.».↗ Example: Mum seemed preoccupied and did not hear my question.↗ · He was too preoccupied with his game to eat dinner.↗ · The detective was preoccupied with the missing key.↗ · She stared out of the window, preoccupied.↗ · Money worries preoccupied the family all winter.↗ · I was so preoccupied that I put the milk in the cupboard.↗