ascendancy

The quality of being in the ascendant; dominant control, supremacy.countableuncountable

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

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

• [W. B. Yeats] belonged not to the ascendancy class but to the protestant bourgeoisie.
• True, the “ascendancy” remained a crucial and significant governing class in Irish life, and would remain so for generations.

A 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.countableuncountable

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