WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Mas"ter*y
Part of Speech : n.;
Etymology : [OF. maistrie.]
Definition : 1. The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority. If divided by mountains, they will fight for the mastery of the passages of the tops. Sir W. Raleigh.

2. Superiority in war or competition; victory; triumph; pre?minence. The voice of them that shout for mastery. Ex. xxxii. 18. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. 1 Cor. ix. 25. O, but to have gulled him Had been a mastery. B. Jonson.

3. Contest for superiority. [Obs.] Holland.

4. A masterly operation; a feat. [Obs.] I will do a maistrie ere I go. Chaucer.

5. Specifically, the philosopher's stone. [Obs.]

6. The act process of mastering; the state of having mastered. He could attain to a mastery in all languages. Tillotson. The learning and mastery of a tongue, being unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with other difficulties. Locke.

pl. Masteries.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913