incumbency.

The state or period of holding a particular office or position.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• period of incumbency
• advantage of incumbency

On the page

The period of incumbency ended before the new policy was adopted.

The advantage of incumbency did not guarantee reelection.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: requirements and constraints, institutional organization, formal assessment, system properties. Disciplines: academic writing, formal analysis, institutional studies. Commonness: moderately common.