prerogative
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
An exclusive hereditary or official right or privilege.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
prihrahguhtivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹɪˈɹɑɡətɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An exclusive hereditary or official right or privilege.
A right, or power that is exclusive to a monarch etc, especially such a power to make a decision or judgement.
A right, especially when due to one's position or role.
A property, attribute or ability which gives one a superiority or advantage over others; an inherent advantage or privilege; a talent.
adjective
Having a hereditary or official right or privilege.
Characterized by lawless state actions, as in a prerogative state.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An exclusive hereditary or official right or privilege.
Used this way, prerogative is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Official and authoritative
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Nearby words
- perquisite , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prerogative
- “Suffrage was the prerogative of white adult males.”noun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.