seniority.

Greater length of service or a higher position in an ordered hierarchy.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• seniority within a department
• seniority rights

On the page

Seniority determined the order of assignment under the agreed rules.

Her seniority did not give her authority over the separate review panel.

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.