Noun

(of a polity) The state of making laws and controlling resources without the coercion of other nations.

(of a ruler) Supreme authority over all things.

(of a person) The liberty to decide one's thoughts and actions.

Noun

(en-noun)

The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority.

* Sir (Walter Raleigh) (ca.1554-1618)

If divided by mountains, they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the tops.

*{{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)

, chapter=5, title= The Lonely Pyramid , passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.}}

Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; preeminence.

* (w), xxxii. 18

The voice of them that shout for mastery .

* , ix. 25.

Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.

* (Ben Jonson) (1572-1637)

O, but to have gulled him / Had been a mastery .

(label) Contest for superiority.

(Holland)

(label) A masterly operation; a feat.

* (Geoffrey Chaucer) (c.1343-1400)

I will do a maistrie ere I go.

(label) The philosopher's stone.

The act or process of mastering; the state of having mastered; expertise.

* (John Tillotson) (1630-1694)

He could attain to a mastery in all languages.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

The learning and mastery of a tongue, being unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with other difficulties.