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eminence

Eminence is superior status. If you become a world famous actor, the folks in your home town might treat you as an eminence when you come home for Thanksgiving. Just don't expect your family to do the same.

Eminence traces back to the Latin adjective ēminēntia, meaning high or lofty. We don't usually use it for mountain tops, however; it's social loftiness that scores eminence. Some special people are addressed as "your eminence," in the same way you'd call a judge "your honor." You can attain eminence or be an eminence. If you become a physical therapist, you might work with another kind of eminence: the high bit protruding from a bone where muscles or ligaments attach.

DEFINITIONS OF: eminence

1

n high status importance owing to marked superiority

“a scholar of great eminence
Synonyms:
distinction, note, preeminence
Types:
king
preeminence in a particular category or group or field
Type of:
high status
a position of superior status

n a protuberance on a bone especially for attachment of a muscle or ligament

Synonyms:
tubercle, tuberosity
Types:
deltoid eminence, deltoid tuberosity
a bump on the outside of the humerus where the deltoid muscle attaches
Type of:
appendage, outgrowth, process
a natural prolongation or projection from a part of an organism either animal or plant
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