ASCENDANCY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ascendancy mean? 

• ASCENDANCY (noun)
  The noun ASCENDANCY has 1 sense:

1. the state that exists when one person or group has power over another

  Familiarity information: ASCENDANCY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASCENDANCY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state that exists when one person or group has power over another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

ascendance; ascendancy; ascendence; ascendency; control; dominance

Context example:

her apparent dominance of her husband was really her attempt to make him pay attention to her

Hypernyms ("ascendancy" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ascendancy"):

ascendant; ascendent (position or state of being dominant or in control)

domination; mastery; supremacy (power to dominate or defeat)

predominance; predomination; prepotency (the state of being predominant over others)

dominion; rule (dominance or power through legal authority)

regulation (the state of being controlled or governed)

absolutism; despotism; tyranny (dominance through threat of punishment and violence)

monopoly (exclusive control or possession of something)

Derivation:

ascend (become king or queen)

ascendant (most powerful or important or influential)

 Context examples 

Sanctioned by established authority; having authority or ascendancy or influence; of recognized authority or excellence..

(Authoritative, NCI Thesaurus)

While there she had met a young man named Harold Latimer, who had acquired an ascendancy over her and had eventually persuaded her to fly with him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His ascendancy over papa, said Agnes, is very great.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Not his ascendancy alone, however, held me in thrall at present.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Since we had learned that the huge iguanodons were kept as tame herds by their owners, and were simply walking meat-stores, we had conceived that man, even with his primitive weapons, had established his ascendancy upon the plateau.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Without going into details, I may say that it defined the position of Great Britain towards the Triple Alliance, and fore-shadowed the policy which this country would pursue in the event of the French fleet gaining a complete ascendancy over that of Italy in the Mediterranean.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)