How to spell prefer

Prefer is spelled P-R-E-F-E-R.

hear itpre·fer/prɪ'fɜr/verbRules and real life

What it means: To like one thing more than another.

In a sentence: I prefer apples over bananas.

Same family: preference, preferable, preferably, preferred, preferring. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Prefer” comes from Latin *praeferre*, meaning “to carry before” or “put in front,” which is similar to how we now use it to mean choosing one thing over another. The Latin prefix *prae-* means “before,” and *ferre* means “to carry,” a root you also see in words like “transfer” and “ferry.”

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