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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Prevalent \Prev"a*lent\, adjective [L. praevalens, -entis, p. pr. of praevalere. See {Prevail}.]
1. Gaining advantage or superiority; having superior force, influence, or efficacy; prevailing; predominant; successful; victorious.
Brennus told the Roman embassadors, that prevalent arms were as good as any title. --Sir W. Raleigh.
2. Most generally received or current; most widely adopted or practiced; also, generally or extensively existing; widespread; prevailing; as, a prevalent observance; prevalent disease.
This was the most received and prevalent opinion. --Woodward.
Syn: Prevailing; predominant; successful; efficacious; powerful.
Usage: {Prevalent}, {Prevailing}. What customarily prevails is prevalent; as, a prevalent fashion. What actually prevails is prevailing; as, the prevailing winds are west. Hence, prevailing is the livelier and more pointed word, since it represents a thing in action. It is sometimes the stronger word, since a thing may prevail sufficiently to be called prevalent, and yet require greater strength to make it actually prevailing.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
prevalent
adjective: encountered generally especially at the present time; "the prevailing opinion was that a trade war could be averted"; "the most prevalent religion in our area"; "speculation concerning the books author was rife" [syn: {prevailing}, {rife}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
194 Moby Thesaurus words for "prevalent": abounding, abundant, accepted, accidental, accompanying, ado, affluent, afloat, afoot, all the rage, all the thing, all-sufficing, ample, aplenty, ascendant, at the head, average, being, besetting, boss, bottomless, bounteous, bountiful, catholic, chief, circumstantial, commanding, common, commonplace, conformable, consuetudinary, controlling, conventional, copious, current, customary, diffuse, doing, dominant, effuse, epidemic, established, eventuating, everyday, exhaustless, existent, existing, extant, extensive, extravagant, exuberant, familiar, fashionable, fat, fertile, flush, frequent, frequentative, full, galore, general, generally accepted, generous, going on, governing, habitual, happening, head, hegemonic, hegemonistic, hip, in ascendancy, in being, in charge, in chief, in effect, in existence, in fashion, in force, in hand, in plenty, in quantity, in style, in the ascendant, in the wind, in vogue, incidental, inexhaustible, lavish, leading, liberal, living, luxuriant, many, many times, master, maximal, mod, modern, much, new, newfashioned, normal, not rare, numerous, obtaining, occasional, occurring, of common occurrence, oft-repeated, oftentime, omnipresent, on, on foot, ongoing, opulent, ordinary, overbearing, overflowing, pandemic, paramount, passing, pervasive, plenitudinous, plenteous, plentiful, plenty, popular, predominant, predominate, predominating, prepollent, preponderant, preponderate, prepotent, prescribed, prescriptive, present, prevailing, prodigal, productive, profuse, profusive, rampant, received, recurrent, regnant, regular, regulating, regulation, regulative, regulatory, reigning, replete, resultant, rich, rife, riotous, routine, ruling, running, running over, set, smart, sovereign, standard, stereotyped, stock, subsistent, subsisting, superabundant, supreme, taking place, teeming, thick-coming, time-honored, traditional, trendy, ubiquitous, under the sun, under way, universal, up-to-date, up-to-datish, up-to-the-minute, usual, wealthy, well-found, well-furnished, well-provided, well-stocked, wholesale, widespread, wonted
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