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prevalent

/ˈprevələnt//ˈprevələnt/·adjective
widespread; common in a particular place or time
Fig. 1 — A whole field sits grey, with a single dot of colour at its middle.
01Definition

Prevalent describes what is everywhere you look — the common, dominant condition of a place or time. A belief prevalent in the Middle Ages, a disease prevalent in the tropics, a style now prevalent among the young. From the Latin praevalere, 'to be stronger', it carries a faint sense of winning out: what is prevalent has spread widely enough to become the norm. It is the settled result of which proliferate is the process, and the plain opposite of scarce.

02In use
  • iSmartphones are now so prevalent that a household without one is rare.
  • iiThe disease remains prevalent in regions that lack clean water.
  • iiiA prevalent assumption among investors is that prices will keep rising.
03Collocations
  • widely prevalent
  • a prevalent belief
  • become prevalent
  • prevalent among

Family prevalence (noun) · prevail (verb)

04Relations

=widespread, common, pervasive, rife, ubiquitous

≠scarce, rare, uncommon

05Compared
PairThe difference
prevalent vs scarcethe common, everywhere condition → prevalent; demand outruns supply → scarce.
06TOEFL & IELTS

A high-frequency word in TOEFL/IELTS passages on health, society, and technology — 'prevalent among', 'increasingly prevalent'. The noun 'prevalence' is a key term in academic texts about disease and behavior. In Writing Task 2, 'a prevalent view is that…' is a clean way to introduce a common opinion before responding to it. Distinguish it from 'prevailing', which leans toward 'currently dominant'.

07Asked
When is a view prevalent rather than prevailing?
Prevalent measures spread: the view is common, found almost anywhere you look. Prevailing measures dominance: the prevailing opinion is the one that currently wins when views compete, the way the prevailing wind is the one that rules a coast. A superstition can stay prevalent for centuries; a fashion is prevailing only until the next season unseats it.
Is it prevalent in or prevalent among?
Both, sorted by what follows. In takes places, periods and fields: prevalent in the tropics, in the 1980s, in academia. Among takes groups of people or animals: prevalent among teenagers, among migratory birds. Corpus counts make in the workhorse — roughly two-thirds of uses — but among is the precise choice whenever the carrier is a population.
Is scarce the exact opposite of prevalent?
Head-on — prevalent is the condition met almost everywhere, scarce the condition met nowhere near often enough; the two scenes face off on the prevalent vs scarce page in the 'Compared' list above.
What is the difference between prevalent and widespread?
Widespread maps territory: found across a large area. Prevalent adds normality — common enough to be the expected condition, the thing you would assume before checking. A rumour can be widespread yet believed by few; a belief is prevalent when most people hold it. The scene above catches the threshold: past a certain point the colour is no longer spreading through the field — it simply is the field.
What does prevalence mean?
The noun of how-common: the prevalence of smartphones, of a disease, of an attitude. It is uncountable and lives in the frame 'the prevalence of X in/among Y'. Academic prose leans on it because it turns an adjective into a measurable subject — a prevalence can be charted, compared and questioned. Its verb relative, prevail, keeps the older muscle: to win out.