incumbency

American  

[in-kuhm-buhn-see] / ɪnˈkʌm bən si /

noun

incumbencies plural

1. the quality or state of being incumbent.

2. the position or term of an incumbent.

3. something that is incumbent.

4. a duty or obligation.

   my incumbencies as head of the organization.

5. Archaic. an incumbent weight or mass.

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incumbency British  

/ ɪnˈkʌmbənsɪ /

noun

1. the state or quality of being incumbent

2. the office, duty, or tenure of an incumbent

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• incumbencies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of incumbency

First recorded in 1600–10; incumb(ent) + -ency

Example Sentences

But recent state elections suggest that extensive welfare delivery alone is no longer enough to secure incumbency.

From BBC • May 11, 2026

Park is seeking her second term with the benefit of incumbency and the backing of two powerful unions, the Los Angeles Police Protective League and the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

Amid what the analyst describes as an “AI-driven transformation of the data center,” the total addressable market for optics is expanding “well beyond Coherent’s incumbency in the traditional pluggable transceiver market.”

From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026

But she also noted that Mastercard and Visa have “two-sided networks across billions of consumers and hundreds of millions of merchants” that confer major incumbency advantages.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 28, 2026

A native of the city, and educated at the Cathedral school, he became Bible Clerk at All Souls College, Oxford, and in 1837 was ordained by Bishop Stanley, and presented to the incumbency of Aldeby. 

From Norfolk Annals A Chronological Record of Remarkable Events in the Nineteeth Century, Vol. 2 by Mackie, Charles