ascendant

American  

[uh-sen-duhnt] / əˈsɛn dənt /

Or ascendent

noun

1. a position of dominance or controlling influence: possession of power, superiority, or preeminence.

   With his rivals in the ascendant, he soon lost his position.

2. an ancestor; forebear.

3. Astrology. the point of the ecliptic or the sign and degree of the zodiac rising above the eastern horizon at the time of a birth or event: the cusp of the first house.

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adjective

1. ascending; ascending; rising.

2. superior; predominant.

3. Botany. directed or curved upward.

ascendant British  

/ əˈsɛndənt /

adjective

1. proceeding upwards; rising

2. dominant, superior, or influential

3. botany another term for ascending

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noun

1. rare an ancestor

2. a position or condition of dominance, superiority or control

3. astrology (sometimes capital)

   1. a point on the ecliptic that rises on the eastern horizon at a particular moment and changes as the earth rotates on its axis

   2. the sign of the zodiac containing this point

4. increasing in influence, prosperity, etc

Other Word Forms

• nonascendant adjective
• nonascendantly adverb
• nonascendent adjective
• nonascendently adverb
• unascendant adjective
• unascendent adjective

Etymology

Origin of ascendant

1350–1400; Middle English ascendent < Latin ascendent- (stem of ascendēns ) climbing up. See ascend, -ent, -ant

Example Sentences

Two years later One Nation appeared ascendant, picking up 11 seats in Queensland's state election and winning 8.4% of primary votes in the federal election.

From BBC • Mar. 25, 2026

Julian Alvarez headed wide as Atletico, ascendant, looked for a second.

From Barron's • Feb. 24, 2026

On paper, it all looks fairly obvious—a team that finished the regular season 14-3 against another 14-3 team, two ascendant quarterbacks, two sterling defenses.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 26, 2026

More than 50 years after debuting at the 1970 Osaka world’s fair with the 17-minute experimental film “Tiger Child,” the format has become the ascendant king of spectacle.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025

Washington, for his part, obliged his Virginia critics by urging his stepgrandson to attend Harvard in order to escape the provincial versions of learning currently ascendant in the Old Dominion.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

• predominant