Word.ws English Dictionary

tanistry

UK/ˈtæ.nɪ.stɹi/

tanistry noun: a form of tenure, in ancient Scotland and Ireland, whereby succession was passed to an elected member of the same extended family.

Noun

tanistry (usually uncountable, plural tanistries)

  1. (historical, usually) A form of tenure, in ancient Scotland and Ireland, whereby succession was passed to an elected member of the same extended family.
    • They also have to make allowance, in place of primogeniture, for the practice of tanistry, that is, the naming of a successor who was not necessarily the ruler's son.2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 50

Forms of tanistry

pluraltanistries

Origin of tanistry

From tanist + -ry.

Questions about tanistry

What does tanistry mean?
Tanistry means a form of tenure, in ancient Scotland and Ireland, whereby succession was passed to an elected member of the same extended family.
What part of speech is tanistry?
Tanistry is a noun.
How do you pronounce tanistry?
Tanistry is pronounced /ˈtæ.nɪ.stɹi/ (UK).
What is the plural of tanistry?
The plural of tanistry is tanistries.

Words near tanistry in the dictionary

  1. Tanishpa's dwarf gecko
  2. Tanishpa's dwarf geckos
  3. tanist
  4. tanistic
  5. tanistries
  6. tanistry
  7. tanists
  8. tanistship
  9. tanistships
  10. Tanit
  11. tanite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tanistry (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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