ascendant

Borrowed from Middle French ascendant, from Latin ascendens.

ascendant (comparative more ascendant, superlative most ascendant)

1. Rising, moving upward.
   • Browne

     The constellation […] about that time ascendant.

2. Surpassing or controlling.
   • South

     An ascendant spirit over him.

   • John Stuart Mill

     The ascendant community obtained a surplus of wealth.

ascendant (plural ascendants)

1. Being in control; superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency.

   One man has the ascendant over another.

   • Robertson

     Chievres had acquired over the mind of the young monarch the ascendant not only of a tutor, but of a parent.

2. An ancestor (antonym of descendant)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ayliffe to this entry?)

3. (usu. followed by to) A royal heir assuming (a place of power)

   Given his father's ghastly demise, one would not expect such glee from the ascendant to his throne.

4. Ascent; height; elevation.
   • Temple

     Sciences that were then in their highest ascendant.

5. (astrology) The horoscope, or that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the moment of one's birth; supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's life and fortune.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Burke to this entry?)

• ascend
• ascent
• ascendance
• ascendancy/ascendency
• ascending
• ascender

• adnascent

Borrowed from Latin ascendens, ascendentem.

• IPA^(key): /a.sɑ̃.dɑ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

ascendant

1. present participle of ascendre

ascendant (feminine singular ascendante, masculine plural ascendants, feminine plural ascendantes)

1. ascendant

ascendant m (plural ascendants)

1. (astrology) ascendant
2. influence, ascendancy

   L'équipe adverse a repris l'ascendant du match. ― The team is again dominated by the adversary.

3. (genealogy) ancestry

• “ascendant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

ascendant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of ascendō