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hegemony

UK/hɪˈɡɛ.mə.ni/US/hɪˈd͡ʒɛ.mə.ni/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,179 of 15,258mostly written

Hegemony is the dominance of one state or group over others. American hegemony, cultural hegemony, challenge the hegemony.

Gramsci gave it its modern political sense, meaning rule maintained by consent and culture rather than by force, which is why the word appears constantly in media studies. It may be said with a hard or a soft g.

Definitions of hegemony

  1. 1nounhegemonyThe dominance of one state or group over others.C2

    “For much of the nineteenth century, British naval hegemony let it control trade across the oceans.”

hegemony is a dominance.

Where it comes from

Greek hegemonia means leadership, from hegemon, a leader.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *seh₂g-

  2. Ancient Greek

    ἡγεμονία — supremacy or leadership, chief command

  3. English, today

    hegemony

Built from

  • ἡγεμών · Ancient Greek — a leader, guide, commander, chief
  • ἡγέομαι · Ancient Greek — to lead

From Ancient Greek ἡγεμονία (“supremacy or leadership, chief command”), from ἡγεμών (“a leader, guide, commander, chief”), from ἡγέομαι (“to lead”). Early 19th-century usage influenced by German Hegemonie.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

hegemony in the wild

  • During the 8th century, as the hegemony of Mercia grew, Wessex largely retained its independence.

    Wessex

  • In Ancient Greece, hegemony denotes the politico-military dominance of the hegemon city-state over other city-states.

    Hegemony

  • Spartan hegemony was the period of dominance by Sparta in Greek affairs from 404 to 371 BC.

    Spartan hegemony

  • Plutarch was writing several centuries after the period of Spartan hegemony had ceased.

    Spartan hegemony

  • The League was created in order to unify Greek military forces under Macedonian hegemony (leadership) in a pan-Hellenic expedition against the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

    League of Corinth

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.