noun
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the state or quality of being incumbent
-
the office, duty, or tenure of an incumbent
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of incumbency
First recorded in 1600–10; incumb(ent) + -ency
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That will lead to jobs cuts — a small team of workers using AI already matches the output of a bigger company, growing without having to rely on years of hiring, with incumbency less important.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
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
“You’ve got a huge incumbency advantage having the megawatts today,” says Energy Capital Partners’ Kimmelman.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
His father, till very lately, had but a sort of half stipend, during the incumbency of a certain notorious Mr. MacLagan, to whom he acted only as assistant.
From Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume 6 by J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart
Joe Crowley and Eliot Engel lost their primaries to energetic challengers because they were arrogant and too comfortable in their incumbencies.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 14, 2022
You can’t run for alderman and mayor at the same time, so the mayoral slate didn’t include any of the city’s elected officials, who would have had to rashly sacrifice their incumbencies.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2018
With long incumbencies, said Professor Zimring of the University of California, Berkeley, “innovation is very difficult, and new blood may need new veins and organizational arteries.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 4, 2012
One thinks of time in terms of production schedules and amortizations, the other in terms of incumbencies and election days.
From Time Magazine Archive
The friars appointed to incumbencies received in former times tithes from the Spaniards, and a Church tax from the natives computed by the amount of tribute paid.
From The Philippine Islands by John Foreman
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