prerogative
Other forms: prerogatives
A prerogative is someone's special right or privilege. As Bobby Brown once sang, "I don't need permission / Make my own decisions / That's my prerogative."
Prerogative goes back to a Latin root for a group having the right to vote first (prae-, "pre-" + rogare, "to ask") and thus came to mean "privileged rank." In current use, it refers to a right or privilege held by any person or group. A near synonym is privilege, which puts more emphasis on the fact that others do not have it. The self-justifying phrase "That's my prerogative" (for example, in reference to changing one's mind) is quite common.
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a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right)“suffrage was the prerogative of white adult males”synonyms: exclusive right, perquisite, privilegetypes: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 floorthe right to be admitted onto the floor of a legislative assembly while it is in sessionpublic easementany easement enjoyed by the public in general (as the public's right to use public streets)right of waythe privilege of someone to pass over land belonging to someone elsetype of:rightan abstract idea of that which is due to a person or governmental body by law or tradition or nature
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Vocabulary lists containing prerogative
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