# ascendancy

> English word · Noun · IPA /əˈsɛndənsi/ · frequency rank #33,517

## Definitions
1. The quality of being in the ascendant; dominant control, supremacy.
2. Ellipsis of Protestant Ascendancy, a class of Protestant landowners and professionals that dominated political and social life in Ireland up to the early 20th century.
3. A quantitative attribute of an ecosystem, defined as a function of the ecosystem's trophic network, and intended to indicate its ability to prevail against disturbance by virtue of its combined organization and size.

## Etymology
From ascend + -ancy or ascendant + -cy. The use in ecology is due to Robert Ulanowicz.

## Easily confused with
- **ascendant** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/ascendancy-vs-ascendant)

## Common misspellings (16)
`acsendancy`, `asccendancy`, `ascednancy`, `ascenadncy`, `ascendacny`, `ascendanccy`, `ascendancyy`, `ascendanncy`, `ascendanyc`, `ascenddancy`, `ascendnacy`, `ascenndancy`, `ascnedancy`, `asecndancy`, `asscendancy`, `sacendancy`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/ascendancy