ascendancy

plural ascendancies · alternative ascendency

1. countableuncountableThe quality of being in the ascendant; dominant control, supremacy.

   The Tory hard right is in the ascendancy, and a fascist street movement – led by convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson – represents a growing threat.

   2018 July 18, Owen Jones, “The hard right can only be defeated from the left, not from the centre”, in The Guardian

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   Spurs ended the half in the ascendancy and Van der Vaart was again inches away from giving them the lead when he met Bale's cross but his header flew wide.

   2011 January 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 0 - 0 Man Utd”, in BBC

   Synonyms: ascendant, superiority

2. IrelandabbreviationcapitalizedcountableellipsishistoricalsometimesuncountableEllipsis of Protestant Ascendancy, a class of Protestant landowners and professionals that dominated political and social life in Ireland up to the early 20th century.

   [W. B. Yeats] belonged not to the ascendancy class but to the protestant bourgeoisie.

   1975, Terry Eagleton, New Left Review

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   True, the “ascendancy” remained a crucial and significant governing class in Irish life, and would remain so for generations.

   2017, John Gibney, “The Age of O'Connell”, in A Short History of Ireland, 1500–2000, New Haven: Yale University Press, →ISBN

3. countableuncountablebiologyA quantitative attribute of an ecosystem, defined as a function of the ecosystem's trophic network, and intended to indicate its ability to prevail against disturbance by virtue of its combined organization and size.First known use 1986

   Ascendency was found to be a useful indicator for the health assessment of marine benthic ecosystems over space and time.

   2009, Sven Erik Jørgensen, editor, Ecosystem Ecology, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 63