PREF'ERENCE, noun The act of preferring one thing before another; estimation of one thing above another; choice of one thing rather than another.

Leave the critics on either side to contend about the preference due to this or that sort of poetry.

It has to, above, before, or over, before the thing postponed. All men give the preference to Homer as an epic poet. The human body has the preference above or before those of brutes.

The knowledge of things alone gives a value to our reasonings, and preference of one man's knowledge over another's.