prerogative
noun
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In ancient Rome, voting at legal assemblies was done by group, with the majority in a group determining the vote. The group chosen to vote first on an issue was called the praerogātīva, a word rooted in Latin rogāre, “to ask; to ask an assembly for a decision.” When English adopted prerogative from Latin, via Anglo-French, in the 15th century, it took only the idea of the privilege the ancient Roman voting group enjoyed; the English word referred then, as it also does now, to an exclusive or special right, power, or privilege. Often such a prerogative is tied to an office, official body, or nation, but as Bobby Brown reminded us in his 1988 song “My Prerogative,” the right to live as you like can also be referred to as a prerogative.
Examples of prerogative in a Sentence
Thomas M. Disch, Atlantic, February 1992
More important than any of this, he offered himself as an incarnation of constitutional propriety so that, temperamentally stubborn, he was careful never to exceed the limits of a prerogative overexploited by the later Stuarts.
—Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches, 1988
The secularization of the Presidency is indispensable for the reassertion of congressional and popular prerogative.
—Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Cycles of American History, 1986
If you'd rather sell the tickets than use them, that's your prerogative.
It's a writer's prerogative to decide the fate of her characters.
Charmaine Patterson, Peoplemag, 6 Apr. 2024
The Framers designed a system of separated federal powers, each of which had — as Madison explained in Federalist No. 51 — both the necessary ambition to defend its own prerogatives and adequate tools with which to do so.
—Daniel Foster, National Review, 30 Nov. 2023
See all Example Sentences for prerogative 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'prerogative.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near prerogative
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“Prerogative.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prerogative. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
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prerogative
noun
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