alpha status
Pack leader position
Alpha status is a position of dominance or leadership within a group, borrowed from studies of wolf pack hierarchies.
Someone with alpha status commands respect, makes decisions, and others defer to them: He's always jockeying for alpha status in the office.
The term appears in discussions of social dynamics, dating advice, and workplace politics, often with undertones of aggression or machismo.
The underlying wolf research has been largely debunked, but the concept persists in popular usage.
- dominantHaving superior influence
- leaderOne who guides others
- packGroup or compress
- wolf packGroup of wild canines
- hierarchyRanked authority structure
top dog · apex · king of the jungle · chief · boss · big man on campus · superiority · assertive · commanding · territorial · prowess · rank · prestige · power · control · show of force · aggression · competition
- dominancedominance, dominant, supremacy, superiority, ascendancy
- pecking orderpecking order, beta, omega, dominant, submissive
- powerauthority, electric power, nuclear power, solar power, wind power
alpha statusunderling
Person of lower rank
last place · omega male · beta male · subordinate · bottom dog
alpha statussubservience
Excessive willingness to obey
submissiveness · powerlessness · servility · deference · meekness
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