Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state of being older than another or others or higher in rank than another or others.
  • noun Precedence of position, especially precedence over others of the same rank by reason of a longer span of service.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being senior; priority of birth: opposed to juniority: as, the elder brother is entitled to the place by seniority.
  • noun Priority in office or service: as, the seniority of a surgeon or a chaplain.
  • noun A body of seniors or elders; an assembly or court consisting of the senior fellows of a college.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being senior.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A measure of the amount of time a person has been a member of an organization, as compared to other members, and with an eye towards awarding privileges to those who have been members longer.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the property of being long-lived
  • noun higher rank than that of others especially by reason of longer service

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English senyoryte, from Medieval Latin senioritas, from Latin senior ("elder"); see senior.

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