mastery Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun great skillfulness and knowledge of some subject or activity
    control; command.
    • a good command of French
  2. noun power to dominate or defeat
    supremacy; domination.
    • mastery of the seas
  3. noun the act of mastering or subordinating someone
    subordination.

WordNet

Mas"ter*y noun
Etymology
OF. maistrie.
Wordforms
plural Masteries
Definitions
  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; preëminence.
    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.

Webster 1913