predominant -- dominant, what's the difference between them?

[R H Draney]

What is the difference between 'predominant' and 'dominant'?

"DOMINANT, PREDOMINANT, [...] mean superior to all others in influence or
importance.
"DOMINANT applies to something that is uppermost because ruling or
controlling <a dominant social class>.
"PREDOMINANT applies to something that exerts, often temporarily, the most
marked influence <a predominant emotion>. "

Now that we've taken care of the official question, I intend to go off on a
rant....

Why do I keep seeing both "dominate" and "predominate" used as adjectives in
place of the words asked about above?...r

[John O'Flaherty]

Post by R H Draney

What is the difference between 'predominant' and 'dominant'?

"DOMINANT, PREDOMINANT, [...] mean superior to all others in influence or
importance.
"DOMINANT applies to something that is uppermost because ruling or
controlling <a dominant social class>.
"PREDOMINANT applies to something that exerts, often temporarily, the most
marked influence <a predominant emotion>. "

Now that we've taken care of the official question, I intend to go off on a
rant....
Why do I keep seeing both "dominate" and "predominate" used as adjectives in
place of the words asked about above?...r

It might be due to mishearing.. Some adjectives are formed from verbs
that way, but for the ones I can think of, the thing the adjective is
applied to is the receiver of the verb action - - determinate,
designate, degenerate, alternate, aggregate. For dominant and
predominant, the action is outward.

--
john

[Mike Lyle]

What is the difference between 'predominant' and 'dominant'?
Thank you for any infomation on that.

Think of "majority rule".

Think, too, of the occasional lapse into "indiscriminant", as
mentioned in our "Words...by mistake" thread: I assume it's formed by
a false analogy with "dominant" and other words, but technically I'm
not at all sure it's an irregular formation.

Mike.