preferences

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of preference.

   The survey recorded customers' preferences for color and size.

   Their travel preferences differ greatly from ours.

   Note

   A plural that exists only for the countable uses of preference: separate likings or chosen options, each one counted. It takes for, as in preferences for color and size, and occasionally of. The card game preferans is uncountable and has no plural here. The same spelling also serves as the verb form and as the software settings, a sense that comes only in the plural.

2. 2
   nounplural

   The settings of program options that a user has chosen to control how interactive software behaves.

   You can adjust the display preferences from the settings menu.

   The application stores user preferences in a local configuration file.

   Similarsettings

   Note

   Software speaks of its preferences only in the plural. You adjust the preferences, not a preference, even when a single option changes. The word names the whole set a user has chosen, which is why profile works as a near-synonym: a saved bundle of choices rather than one liking. It is usually tied to a noun placed in front, as in display preferences or user preferences, rather than followed by for.

3. 3
   verbUS

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of preference.

   The algorithm preferences recent results when sorting the list.

   This grading scheme preferences accuracy over completion time.

   Note

   An American usage in which preference itself became a verb meaning to give preferential treatment. The sense is about treatment, not taste. To preference something is to favor it in how it is handled, whereas to prefer it is to like it better. It takes a direct object with no preposition: the algorithm preferences recent results, and the scheme preferences accuracy over completion time.

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