preference meaning
EN
[ˈpɹɛf(ə)ɹ(ə)ns] WPreference
- The term preferences is used in a variety of related, but not identical, ways in the scientific literature. This makes it necessary to make explicit the sense in which the term is used in different social sciences.
FR préférence 
- NounPLpreferencesPREpré-SUF-ence
- The selection of one thing or person over others.
- The option to so select, and the one selected.
- Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. Perhaps we assume that our name, address and search preferences will be viewed by some unseen pair of corporate eyes, probably not human, and don't mind that much.
- The state of being preferred over others.
- A strong liking or personal valuation.
- A preferential bias; partiality; discrimination.
- Preferans, a card game, principally played in Eastern Europe.
- The selection of one thing or person over others.
- VerbSGpreferencesPRpreferencingPT, PPpreferenced
- (US) To give preferential treatment to; to give a preference to.
- (US) To give preferential treatment to; to give a preference to.
- More Examples
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
- Nevertheless, one foot is generally used in preference to the other in such movements as digging (hence sometimes called the spade foot), in hopping, in making a leap, &c.
- Whimbrels in Iceland show a strong preference for sparsely vegetated riverplains.
- Spence [23 ] reported a biodistance analysis of cranial, dental, and postcranial traits in human remains from Teotihuacan showing a preference for patrilocality.
- Used in the Middle of Sentence
Definition of preference in English Dictionary
- Part-of-Speech Hierarchy
- Nouns
- Countable nouns
- Countable nouns
- Verbs
- Nouns
- en preferences
- en preferenced
Source: Wiktionary
Grammatically, this word "preference" is a noun, more specifically, a countable noun. It's also a verb.