ˈprez(ə)dənsē, -si also -zəd ə ns- or -zəˌden(t)s- noun
( -es )
Etymology: Medieval Latin praesidentia, from Latin praesident-, praesidens president, ruler + -ia -y
1.
a. : the office of president
elected to the presidency of … the hotel corporation — Current Biography
assumed the presidency of the university
b. sometimes capitalized
(1) : the office of president of the U.S.
the presidency … is preeminently a place of moral leadership — F.D.Roosevelt
an avowed candidate for the presidency — Nation
(2) : the American governmental institution comprising the office of president and the various administrative and policy-making agencies directly associated with the president of the U.S.
the presidency … was proliferating into countless people, councils, and commissions — Douglass Cater
2. : the term during which a president holds office
the third year of his presidency
3. : the action or function of one that presides : superintendence
such a body … met by his advice and under his presidency — F.M.Stenton
the presidency and guidance of some superior agent — John Ray
4. : one of three great divisions (Madras, Bombay, and Bengal) of British India originally forming a district under a president of the East India Company and later a province under the administration of a governor
5. : a council of three in the Mormon Church consisting of a president and two counselors and having jurisdiction in spiritual or temporal matters throughout the church or a stake or within a smaller unit (as a quorum) — compare first presidency
6. : one of the four or five former divisions of the British colony of the Leeward Islands
by the Leeward Islands Act, 1956 … each of the 4 presidencies became a colony — Statesman's Year Book