hegemony

[hi-jem-uh-nee, hej-uh-moh-nee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hegemony ON THESAURUS.COM

noun, plural he·gem·o·nies.

leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others, as in a confederation.

leadership; predominance.

(especially among smaller nations) aggression or expansionism by large nations in an effort to achieve world domination.

Origin of hegemony

1560–70; < Greek hēgemonía leadership, supremacy, equivalent to hēgemon- (stem of hēgemṓn) leader + -ia -y³

Related formsheg·e·mon·ic

[hej-uh-mon-ik] /ˌhɛdʒ əˈmɒn ɪk/, heg·e·mon·i·cal, adjectivean·ti·he·gem·o·ny, noun, plural an·ti·he·gem·o·nies, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for hegemony

predominance, leadership, command, power, authority

Examples from the Web for hegemony

Contemporary Examples of hegemony

People sent her bits of information as a way for them to resist the hegemony of the cartels.
She Tweeted Against the Mexican Cartels. They Tweeted Her Murder.
Jason McGahan
October 21, 2014
The BRICS Bank looks, for all its founding rhetoric, like a platform for Chinese hegemony instead.
John Kerry Just Visited. But Should We Just Forget About India?
Tunku Varadarajan
August 3, 2014
The schism in Wisconsin was the first crack in the Republican Party's hegemony.
The GOP’s Last Identity Crisis Remade U.S. Politics
Michael Wolraich
July 24, 2014
After Japan invaded the Korean Peninsula in 1905, the conquerors sought to co-opt local pride to reinforce Japanese hegemony.
Such a Sweet Little Dictator: Kim Jong-un and North Korea’s Child Cult
Scott Bixby
April 24, 2014
What interested me even more than the headlines was his little riff on the projection of American hegemony.
Obama’s U.N. Speech
Michael Tomasky
September 24, 2013

Historical Examples of hegemony

Her seniors in point of time, they have been outdistanced in the race for Balkan hegemony.
Bulgaria
Frank Fox
There were papers from other planets now under the hegemony of Mekin.
Talents, Incorporated
William Fitzgerald Jenkins
At one time Russia seemed destined to the hegemony of the Pacific.
Problems of the Pacific
Frank Fox
For very many years the European hegemony had been unquestioned.
Problems of the Pacific
Frank Fox
No; I will not agitate for extermination of the Government and hegemony over the Mob.
The Syndic
C.M. Kornbluth

British Dictionary definitions for hegemony

hegemony

noun plural -nies

ascendancy or domination of one power or state within a league, confederation, etc, or of one social class over others

Derived Formshegemonic (ˌhɛɡəˈmɒnɪk), adjective

Word Origin for hegemony

C16: from Greek hēgemonia authority, from hēgemōn leader, from hēgeisthai to lead

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hegemony

1560s, from Greek hegemonia "leadership, a leading the way, a going first;" also "the authority or sovereignty of one city-state over a number of others," as Athens in Attica, Thebes in Boeotia; from hegemon "leader," from hegeisthai "to lead," perhaps originally "to track down," from PIE *sag-eyo-, from root *sag- "to seek out, track down, trace" (see seek). Originally of predominance of one city state or another in Greek history; in reference to modern situations from 1860, at first of Prussia in relation to other German states.