/euh sen"deuhnt/ , n.
1. a position of dominance or controlling influence: possession of power, superiority, or preeminence: With his rivals in the ascendant, he soon lost his position.
2. an ancestor; forebear.
3. Astrol. the point of the ecliptic or the sign and degree of the zodiac rising above the eastern horizon at the time of a birth or event: the cusp of the first house.
adj.
4. ascending; rising.
5. superior; predominant.
6. Bot. directed or curved upward.
Also, ascendent .
[ 1350-1400; ME ascendent ascendent- (s. of ascendens ) climbing up. See ASCEND, -ENT, -ANT ]