paramountcy

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UK/ˈpaɹəmaʊn(t)si/

noun

The condition or fact of being paramount; precedence, supremacy; (countable) an instance of this.

RareFirst used 17th c.Scrabble 20

Meanings

nounparamountcy (countable and uncountable, plural paramountcies)

plural paramountcies

  1. uncountableThe condition or fact of being paramount; precedence, supremacy; (countable) an instance of this.First known use 17th c.

    Both, they claim, were British spies, sent into Central Asia as part of a grand design for paramountcy there at the expense of Russia, whose influence they aimed to destroy.

    1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 203
    2 more examples

    [W]e saw this permanence to be true of the general paramountcy of the higher insight, even though in the ebbs of emotional excitement meaner motives might temporarily prevail and backsliding might occur.

    1902, William James, “Lectures XI, XII, and XIII: Saintliness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 268

    Portuguese Church authorities often made things more difficult for non-Portuguese European missionaries by insisting on the paramountcy of their own culture and ecclesiastical jurisdiction […]

    2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 703

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

paramountcy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/paramountcy

MLA

“paramountcy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/paramountcy. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “paramountcy,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/paramountcy.

Source: paramountcy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.