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"prevalent"? Do you know more mentally-ill people than sane people?

Common, maybe. Probably underestimated in number, sure. Prevalent, I do hope not!

Apparently it depends on which dictionary/thesaurus you check, but "common" seems to be a reasonably well accepted synonym of "prevalent".

Prevalence does not imply majority.

It probably did at one point. Oxford has "predominant" (which would imply majority) as an archaic meaning: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_eng...

hmm, I would have thought that's exactly what it implied. Isn't the root 'prevail', which is more or less 'to win'? That would suggest a majority.