incumbent

Meanings

Adjective

• Imposed on someone as an obligation, especially due to one's office.
• Lying; resting; reclining; recumbent.
• Prevalent, prevailing, predominant.
• Resting on something else; in botany, said of anthers when lying on the inner side of the filament, or of cotyledons when the radicle lies against the back of one of them
• Bent downwards so that the ends touch, or rest on, something else.
• Being the current holder of an office or a title.

Noun

• The current holder of an office, such as ecclesiastical benefice or an elected office.
• A holder of a position as supplier to a market or market segment that allows the holder to earn above-normal profits.

Origin

• From Middle English, from stem incumbent-, of Medieval Latin incumbēns ("holder of a church position"), from Latin present participle of incumbō.