Let’s say you happen across the phrase ‘senior politicians’, completely out of context —
how would you read it? As ‘aged politicians’ or as ‘high-ranking politicians’? How do you distinguish between the two meanings of ‘senior’?

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Deleted user

12 mar 2021

Featured answer

I’d say you can tell the difference between them by remembering “senior” and “senior citizen”. Senior won’t always mean an older person, but senior citizen will. I don’t think their age would be mentioned in that way much unless they broke some type of record (like the oldest to hold office), though.

Senior used as an adjective in a title usually refers to their status rather than their age. Try to see if senior is used as a noun or an adjective when you see it.

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ericmoody

12 mar 2021

Inglês (EUA)

High-ranking

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Friedrich338

12 mar 2021

Russo

@ericmoody Thank you. And how do you distinguish between the two meanings? how can one use the word ‘senior’ in this situation so that it would be unambiguously read as ‘aged’?

Deleted user

12 mar 2021

I’d say you can tell the difference between them by remembering “senior” and “senior citizen”. Senior won’t always mean an older person, but senior citizen will. I don’t think their age would be mentioned in that way much unless they broke some type of record (like the oldest to hold office), though.

Senior used as an adjective in a title usually refers to their status rather than their age. Try to see if senior is used as a noun or an adjective when you see it.

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Friedrich338

12 mar 2021

Russo

@studyrabbit thank you! I guess when followed by the name of the title ‘senior’ always means ‘high-ranking’ — ‘senior’ generals, politicians, etc. (high-ranking)

but if were to say — ‘Joe Biden is the most senior American president in history’ — I suppose it would also be a valid use of the word in the sense ‘aged’, wouldn’t it?

Deleted user

12 mar 2021

They’d probably say something like

“Joe Biden is the oldest president in American history. The senior was elected into office after his win in the 2020 Presidential Election”, instead.

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Friedrich338

12 mar 2021

Russo

@studyrabbit ok, so basically ‘senior’ as a noun (meaning ‘an old person’) is always a safe option;

while ‘senior’ as an adjective almost always means ‘high-ranking’, barring some fixed phrases (senior citizens)