reigning

1. 1
   adjective

   Currently in power or holding a title, office, or championship.

   The reigning monarch opened parliament with the customary address.

   She entered the finals as the reigning world champion.

   Similarcurrent, incumbent, ruling

   Oppositeformer

   Note

   A word that stands just before a title: the reigning champion, the reigning monarch, the reigning world heavyweight champion. It takes no degrees, so nobody is more reigning or most reigning, because a title is simply held or not held. Use it to name who holds the title now. For the ongoing act of ruling itself, English turns to the verb form, as in the queen was reigning.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of reign.

   The emperor was reigning when the great earthquake struck the capital.

   After reigning for forty years, the queen finally abdicated the throne.

   Note

   The -ing form does two jobs: it builds the progressive (the emperor was reigning) and it names the act as a noun (after reigning for forty years). Because reign is normally intransitive, a monarch is reigning over a country, not reigning it; the direct-object use is rare and nonstandard. The verb also reaches beyond thrones, to any quality that prevails in a place, as when silence is reigning over a hall.

   She spent four decades reigning over a small coastal kingdom.

   An uneasy silence was reigning in the hall when the verdict was read.

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