ascendant

Adjective

• most powerful or important or influential
  • the economically ascendant class
    
  • D-day is considered the dominating event of the war in Europe
    

• tending or directed upward
  • rooted and ascendant strength like that of foliage- John Ruskin
    

Noun

• someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

• position or state of being dominant or in control
  • that idea was in the ascendant
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  ascendent , dominating , ascensive , ancestor , antecedent , root
• Antonyms: 
  descendant , descendent