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

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

And it is far from certain that OpenAI will be able to fully live up to its commitments, especially if AI demand falters overall or ascendant challengers like Google and Anthropic supplant ChatGPT’s position.

From The Wall Street Journal

We were lucky in that it was an ascendant business at the time.

From The Wall Street Journal

In the soft glow of morning cafés, I see it everywhere: oatmeal, ascendant.

From Salon

The NFL has become ascendant, with a 2023 Pew Research Center survey finding that, by a wide margin, Americans considered football to be “America’s sport.”

From Salon

Related Words

• predominant