PREROGATIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does prerogative mean? 

• PREROGATIVE (noun)
  The noun PREROGATIVE has 1 sense:

1. a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)

  Familiarity information: PREROGATIVE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PREROGATIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

exclusive right; perquisite; prerogative; privilege

Context example:

suffrage was the prerogative of white adult males

Hypernyms ("prerogative" is a kind of...):

right (an abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "prerogative"):

easement ((law) the privilege of using something that is not your own (as using another's land as a right of way to your own land))

privilege of the floor (the right to be admitted onto the floor of a legislative assembly while it is in session)

 Context examples 

“You are usurping one of my prerogatives. You know you I agreed that the cooking should be mine, and—”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Upon which impeachment of what to her was her most essential sex-prerogative, she made their lives unendurable.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

As if loveliness were not the special prerogative of woman—her legitimate appanage and heritage!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Well, I am going to exercise my prerogative of roaring and show you how fares nobility.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

This afternoon, instead of dreaming of Deepden, I was wondering how a man who wished to do right could act so unjustly and unwisely as Charles the First sometimes did; and I thought what a pity it was that, with his integrity and conscientiousness, he could see no farther than the prerogatives of the crown.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)