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What is "preferable"

Crossword clues for preferable

preferable
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
preferable
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
always
▪ It is always preferable to have the rig nearer the wave rather than viceversa.
▪ For lots of blooms, full sun is always preferable, but echinacea will take half sun and half shade.
▪ A limited contract for a few sessions, at least in the first instance, is always preferable.
▪ Here Mr Kinnock should set out clearly why, in the Gorbachev era, negotiated rather than unilateral disarmament is almost always preferable.
as
▪ Nevertheless, many people still cling to the vinyl disk as preferable.
far
▪ In fact, too few words are far preferable to too many.
▪ Jackson, who opposes the welfare overhaul, says Clinton is far preferable to Dole.
▪ Discomfort in the open air was far preferable to him.
▪ From upwards its tone becomes thin and rather unsatisfactory, the flute being far preferable at that altitude.
▪ However, it is far preferable for companies to utilise the professional services of a company such as Rentokil Tropical Plants.
infinitely
▪ In retrospect, dying of the disease itself would seem infinitely preferable to the agonies of death from mercury poisoning.
▪ As a class, professional golfers are swell well-scrubbed chaps and chaplets, infinitely preferable to professional wrestlers or professional loan sharks.
▪ It was fantastic and, I must confess, infinitely preferable to staying on my feet for two hours.
▪ However good they might be as students, their families feel that marriage is infinitely preferable to a college career.
▪ As exorcisms go, it was infinitely preferable to hurling verbal stakes at a callow Cambridge offspinner.
often
▪ But he argues that rule-making is none the less a useful device, and that it is often preferable to direct action.
▪ They argue it is often preferable to the alternatives: batons and revolvers.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ As far as I'm concerned anything would be preferable to staying here alone.
▪ So we're agreed. Our preferable course of action is to do nothing until the report is published.
▪ The most preferable arrangement would be for us to pay very low interest over a long period of time.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A limited contract for a few sessions, at least in the first instance, is always preferable.
▪ After a while, deciding that discretion was preferable, they moved off some distance into the desert parallel to the road.
▪ At that point, even a 3, 000-mile plane ride home into relentless headwinds almost seemed preferable to Vancouver.
▪ But how can we decide which analysis is preferable?
▪ Even to some one as straight as myself, the bearded gentleman is preferable to Anneka Rice or Judith Chalmers.
▪ I found this vaguely reassuring; a short, sharp death seemed preferable to a long, slow chewing underwater.
▪ It must be preferable that the original action proceed rather than being convoluted into a negligence action.
▪ Nevertheless, many people still cling to the vinyl disk as preferable.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Preferable

Preferable \Pref"er*a*ble\, a. [Cf. F. pr['e]f['e]rable.] Worthy to be preferred or chosen before something else; more desirable; as, a preferable scheme.
--Addison.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
preferable

1640s, from or on model of French préférable, from préfér (see prefer). OED notes preferrable is better English but has not prevailed. Related: Preferably.

Wiktionary
preferable

a. better than some other option; preferred.

WordNet
preferable

adj. more desirable than another; "coffee is preferable to tea"; "Danny's preferred name is `Dan'" [syn: preferred]

Usage examples of "preferable".

Compared with Roman imperialism, with its frankly assimilationist, exploitative, and repressive policies, British imperialism seemed to Cromer to be preferable, if somewhat more wishy-washy.

On the same soils, early sowing would probably be preferable, even when much reduced in humus, providing they were in a honeycombed condition at the time of sowing.

This salt, as well as the Hyposulphite of Soda, is not only generally preferable for administration on account of its unirritating character and the smallness of the dose required, but also because it is a valuable antiseptic agent.

Lincoln went into the reasons which appeared to him to render this plan preferable to that of hypothecating the State bonds.

Australia was not what it should be, but even the wild mana and the chaos were preferable to the deadness of the metroplex and the stifling, oppressive gloom cast by the corporate skyscrapers.

It appears to me at the present time that no advantage to our common war effort would result from an attempt to settle this quesion now and that its settlement subsequent to the collapse of Germany is preferable.

Maybe, he thought, looking around at the piles of unboxed electronic equipment and appliances, this was preferable to Chiun falling in love with Dame Edna Everage.

The underclothing of this time was smaller and therefore preferable to yore.

To Adams, on the other hand, Leasowes was preferable to anything they had seen.

John Adams, the paper now declared, was clearly preferable to Washington.

I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others not especially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they would wish to either accept or refuse.

Now Paulvitch had no intention of permitting himself to fall into the hands of Tarzan of the Apes if he could possibly avoid it, and while the terrors of the jungle appalled him they were, to his mind, infinitely preferable to the certain death which he knew he merited and for which he might look at the hands of the ape-man.

If such was the poverty of Laodicea, what must have been the wealth of those cities, whose claim appeared preferable, and particularly of Pergamus, of Smyrna, and of Ephesus, who so long disputed with each other the titular primacy of Asia?

When I ventured to suggest that such transport would be preferable to contending with an ox and cart all the way to Cathair Ban, I received merely a growl of disdain from Buinne and a shrug from Iollan, which suggested that neither of them possessed this particular skill.

One day he was taken with the new Gothic, the next he felt more restrained and thought that perhaps chinoiserie was preferable.