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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
ascendant
I.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And Mr Desmond's Star is in the ascendant, a full 5.72 per cent ahead.
▪ For ladies in your way are apt to extend what they call their privileges and the husband never again recovers the ascendant.
▪ If there are more than 25 ascendants, enter the last displayed ascendant in the user name field to reveal the other ascendants.
▪ In spite of the vote for Clinton in 1992, it is that second personality that has been in the ascendant recently.
▪ In Yorkshire, and elsewhere, the public relations and promotional aspects are now in the ascendant.
▪ It is a bold colonization by a group that knows it is - and shows itself to be - in the ascendant.
▪ Nothing barring a major disaster can prevent her from becoming a main attraction - Barbara Dennerlein is a star in the ascendant.
II.adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ an ascendant politician
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Arran gave way to the persuasions of his half-brother, the abbot of Paisley, and to the ascendant Beaton faction.
▪ Tory ministers continue to watch Mr Smith's ascendant star with considerable nervousness.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ascendant

Ascendant \As*cend"ant\, Ascendent \As*cend"ent\, a.

  1. Rising toward the zenith; above the horizon.

    The constellation . . . about that time ascendant.
    --Browne.

  2. Rising; ascending.
    --Ruskin.

  3. Superior; surpassing; ruling.

    An ascendant spirit over him.
    --South.

    The ascendant community obtained a surplus of wealth.
    --J. S. Mill.

    Without some power of persuading or confuting, of defending himself against accusations, . . . no man could possibly hold an ascendent position.
    --Grote.

Ascendant

Ascendant \As*cend"ant\, n. [F. ascendant, L. ascendens; p. pr. of ascendere.]

  1. Ascent; height; elevation. [R.]

    Sciences that were then in their highest ascendant.
    --Temple.

  2. (Astrol.) 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.

    Note: Hence the phrases

    To be in the ascendant, to have commanding power or influence, and

    Lord of the ascendant, one who has possession of such power or influence; as, to rule, for a while, lord of the ascendant.
    --Burke.

  3. Superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency; as, one man has the ascendant over another.

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

  4. An ancestor, or one who precedes in genealogy or degrees of kindred; a relative in the ascending line; a progenitor; -- opposed to descendant.
    --Ayliffe.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
ascendant

late 14c., ascendent, astrological use is earliest, from Middle French ascendant (noun and adjective) and directly from Latin ascendentem (nominative ascendans), present participle of ascendere "to mount, ascend, go up" (see ascend). Sense "moving upward, rising" is recorded from 1590s. In the ascendant "ruling, dominant" (not, as is often thought, "rising") is from 1670s.

Wiktionary
ascendant

a. 1 Rising, moving upward. 2 Surpassing or controlling. n. 1 Being in control; superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency. 2 An ancestor (antonym of descendant) 3 Ascent; height; elevation. 4 (context astrology English) 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.

WordNet
ascendant
  1. adj. tending or directed upward; "rooted and ascendant strength like that of foliage"- John Ruskin [syn: ascendent, ascensive]

  2. most powerful or important or influential; "the economically ascendant class"; "D-day is considered the dominating event of the war in Europe" [syn: ascendent, dominating]

  3. n. position or state of being dominant or in control; "that idea was in the ascendant" [syn: ascendent]

  4. someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) [syn: ancestor, ascendent, antecedent, root] [ant: descendant]

Wikipedia
Ascendant

The ascendant ( or As), or rising sign, is the zodiacal sign and degree that was ascending on the eastern horizon at the specific time and location of an event. According to astrological theory, celestial phenomena reflect or determine human activity on the principle of 'as above so below'. Thus astrologers believe that the ascendant signifies a person's awakening consciousness, in the same way that the Sun's appearance on the eastern horizon signifies the dawn of a new day.

Because the ascendant is specific to a particular time and place, to astrologers it signifies the individual environment and conditioning that a person receives during their upbringing, and also the circumstances of their childhood. For this reason astrologers believe that the ascendant is also concerned with how a person has learned to present themself to the world, especially in public and in impersonal situations. To astrologers, in some circumstances, it can function as a shield or mask to guard a person's real nature - in other words the 'defense mechanism' every person has to cope with unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations. Astrologers believe the ascendant also has a strong bearing on a person's physical appearance and overall health.

The Ascendant is thus considered to be of great significance in all schools of astrology because it in effect serves as the filter through which everything in a horoscope- including the Sun and Moon- is expressed. Most astrologers believe that the Rising Sign exerts an influence equal to or more powerful than the Sun and Moon. In Jyotish, the ascendant is without question the most individual and defining element in the chart.

Usage examples of "ascendant".

Against such a peril I had provided certain amulets made of the stone alectorian, which groweth in the gizzard of a cock hatched on a moonless night when Saturn burneth in a human sign and the lord of the third house is in the ascendant.

Her ascendancy over the King was attributed to the enchantments and experiments of a Dominican friar, learned in many a cantrip and cabala, whom she entertained in her house, and who had fashioned two pictures of Edward and Alive which, when suffumigated with the incense of mysterious herbs and gums, mandrakes, sweet calamus, caryophylleae, storax, benzoin, and other plants plucked beneath the full moon what time Venus was in ascendant, caused the old King to dote upon this lovely concubine.

We would have our associations severedwith you, with Cotillion, and with every other Ascendant.

Ascendant or demarch is greatly gifted or has some uncommon ability, he must marry and produce an heir before going into battle, to pass it down.

There are needs permitted to a youthful Ascendant or a warrior in the field that a demarch, especially married, is expected to have mastered, for all his body might tell him that was only yesterday.

In full: Fourth Chevenga Shae-Arano-e, at that time Ascendant to the Demarchy of Yeola-e.

If Krane was coming tohim for disposition, then he must be in the ascendant in this creation.

But he yielded, however reluctantly, to the ascendant which his wiser colleague had acquired over him, and retired, immediately after his abdication, to a villa in Lucania, where it was almost impossible that such an impatient spirit could find any lasting tranquility.

I like the mischievous position of Mars in Taurus, the ascendant of Ireland, particularly as he is upon the mid-heaven, and so near the mundane quartile of Saturn and Mars.

But Bessie was a loyal lass, and even wore the red rose on her boddice notwithstanding the white rose was now in the ascendant.

Cairo, his genius obtained the ascendant over his equals, and attached the army to his person and interest.

Crown Prince and of Prince Ascendant Hyrcan, the snubs of her half-sisters.

Oblomov is representative of serfdom in its classic, precapitalistic stage and can only be fully understood in sharp contrast with Stolz, whose mercantilism is ascendant on the eve of the emancipation.

When his first transports had subsided, she still maintained the same ascendant over his mind, by the more solid merit of temper and understanding.

It is said they partedargumentativelyin the days before the ascendants gathered to chain the Fallen One.