prepotent

P3R1E1P3O1T1E1N1T1
/pɹɪˈpoʊtənt/

adjective

Very powerful; superior in force, influence, or authority; predominant.

OriginLatin praepotens ← Proto-Italic *potēnts ← Proto-Indo-European *pótis →
Scrabble 13
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Meanings

adjective
  1. Very powerful; superior in force, influence, or authority; predominant.

    To ordre his subiectes after true iustice / As a prepotent prince

    1521, Henry Bradshaw, The Holy Lyfe and History of saynt Werburge, London: Richard Pynson, Book 1, Chapter 16
    3 more examples

    […] Jeff’s eyes were dry, though his face was discharged of all its prepotent impudence.

    1897, William Dean Howells, chapter 49, in The Landlord at Lion’s Head, New York: Harper, page 392

    […] if they had subordinated themselves, docilely and automatically, to the prepotent social and academic figures of the society about them, that in no wise detracted from the favorable impression they had made on her.

    1919, Henry Blake Fuller, chapter 33, in Bertram Cope’s Year, Chicago: R.F. Seymour, page 306

    […] the exigencies of awareness are that we focus on certain dimensions of the objects before us, make certain ways of seeing them prepotent.

    1975, Charles Taylor, Hegel, Cambridge University Press, Part 2, Chapter 4, p. 142
  2. biologyCharacterized by prepotency.

    […] the mother strain, if not prepotent in the sense of science, seems to me to have outweighed that of any other relative of whom we have record.

    1916, C. Alphonso Smith, O. Henry Biography, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, Chapter 3, p. 45
    1 more example

    When one parent alone displays some of the newly-acquired and generally inheritable character, and the offspring do not inherit it, the cause may lie in the other parent having the power of prepotent transmission.

    1868, Charles Darwin, chapter 13, in The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, volume 2, London: John Murray, page 28

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*préh₂i?
  4. Proto-Italic*prai
  5. Proto-Italic*prai-
  6. Latinprae-
  7. Proto-Indo-European*pótis
  8. Proto-Italic*potis
  9. Proto-Italic*potēō
  10. Proto-Italic*potēnts
  11. Latinpotēns
  12. Latinpraepotens
  13. Englishprepotent

Borrowed from Latin praepotens.

More words from Latin

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

prepotent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prepotent

MLA

“prepotent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prepotent. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “prepotent,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prepotent.

Source: prepotent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.