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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Preeminence

Preeminence \Pre*["e]m"i*nence\, n. [F. pr['e]['e]minence, L. praeeminentia. See Pre["e]minent.] The quality or state of being pre["e]minent; superiority in prominence or in excellence; distinction above others in quality, rank, etc.; rarely, in a bad sense, superiority or notoriety in evil; as, pre["e]minence in honor.

The pre["e]minence of Christianity to any other religious scheme.
--Addison.

Painful pre["e]minence! yourself to view Above life's weakness, and its comforts too.
--Pope.

Beneath the forehead's walled pre["e]minence.
--Lowell.

Wiktionary
preeminence

alt. 1 The status of being preeminent, dominant or ascendant. 2 High importance; superiority. n. 1 The status of being preeminent, dominant or ascendant. 2 High importance; superiority.

WordNet
preeminence

n. high status importance owing to marked superiority; "a scholar of great eminence" [syn: eminence, distinction, note]

Usage examples of "preeminence".

To each was assigned, by the public, a guard, and a council of a hundred persons, and the first of the princes appears to have enjoyed a preeminence of rank and honor which sometimes tempted the Romans to compliment him with the regal title.

The same causes which at first had destroyed the equality of the presbyters introduced among the bishops a preeminence of rank, and from thence a superiority of jurisdiction.

United the two men might be in their hatred of the French, republicanism, and Catholics, but Hendon was far too much a stickler for the preeminence of rules and propriety to ever find favor with a Machiavellian schemer like Jarvis.

King of France, and his old compatriots from Poitou and the Limousin in the vassalage of his niece, the queen, had at last arrived to repair the situation and elevate the house of Poitou to that preeminence it might now easily acquire in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Preeminence had passed to the battalions led by Gialaurys, Spalirises, and Thurm, who needed less space for the use of their weapons.

Where equality of rank is affectedly acknowledged by the rich, and clamourously claimed by the poor, distinction and preeminence are allowed to the clergy only.

The bishops, who contended with each other for ecclesiastical preeminence, appeared by their conduct to claim a secular and tyrannical power in the church.

With that conscious pride which the preeminence of knowledge and luxury seldom fails to inspire, they derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the North.

In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is manifest and audacious: the Sabians are poorly excused by the preeminence of the first planet, or intelligence, in their celestial hierarchy.

He had long ago learned to read the subtle signs which indicated power and preeminence.

It was not titles that gave men preeminence in America, she had lectured the “haughty Scotchman” on her voyage to England and to the solid approval of her shipmates.

It was not titles that gave men preeminence in America, she had lectured the "haughty Scotchman" on her voyage to England and to the solid approval of her shipmates.