noun
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the state or quality of being incumbent
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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:
“We see how people react to incumbency, and so all the more reason for you to be connected to your community and respond to community,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
But recent state elections suggest that extensive welfare delivery alone is no longer enough to secure incumbency.
From BBC ● May 11, 2026
The shift to AI data centers is driving an expansion of the total addressable market for optical components “well beyond Coherent’s incumbency in the traditional pluggable transceiver market,” he wrote.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 11, 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
Upon the expiration of his sixty days' incumbency, Vadillo designated Manuel de Rojas to be governor in his stead, until an appointment of permanent character could be made by the Admiral at Hispaniola.
From The History of Cuba, vol. 1 by Willis Fletcher Johnson
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
It was suggested that some of the revenues of the larger sees should be diverted for the benefit of the smaller incumbencies.
From Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon — Volume 02 by Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
