prepotency

Definitions

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  • noun The state or quality of being prepotent; superior power, influence, or efficiency; predominance; prevalence.
  • noun In biology, the preponderating power or tendency of one germ-cell, one parent, or one ancestor to fix the character of descendants.
  • noun The resemblance of a child to its parent of the same sex as regards any quality.

Examples

  • By contrast, the vacant gaze of Alexander betrayed, not the ecstasies of prepotency, but its apprehensions.

    FORGE OF EMPIRES 1861-1871

  • All of them -- all of them protected, of course, by the Geneva Convention. and the JAG, the Judge Advocate General, has the responsibility and prepotency to see that the Geneva Convention is followed throughout our troops.

    CNN Transcript Nov 26, 2001

  • Somewhat closely connected with this last fact is another equally important, the fact of prepotency in a stud dog, consisting of the capacity on the part of the dog to transmit his share of characteristics to his offspring in a far larger degree than is imparted by the average dog.

    The Boston Terrier and All About It A Practical, Scientific, and Up to Date Guide to the Breeding of the American Dog

  • It would seem a far simpler way for each plant's pollen to have acquired a prepotency on another individual's stigma over that of the same individual, without the extraordinary complication of three differences of structure and eighteen different unions with varying degrees of sterility!

    More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1

  • Human experience takes place in several dimensions, each of which, alone or in interaction, is capable of assuming prepotency in determining an individual’s life choices.

    Planned Short-Term Treatment

Note

The word 'prepotency' comes from a Latin word meaning 'powerful'.