patronage

1. 1.

   the act of providing approval and support

   “his vigorous backing of the conservatives got him in trouble with progressives”

   Synonymsbackingbackupchampionship

   Broaderblessing
2. 2.

   customers collectively

   “they have an upper class clientele”

   Synonymsclientelebusiness

   Broaderpeople
3. 3.

   a communication that indicates lack of respect by patronizing the recipient

   Synonymscondescensiondisdain

   Broaderdisparagement
4. 4.

   (politics) granting favors or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support

   Broadersocial control

   Narrowernomenklatura

   politics

5. 5.

   the business given to a commercial establishment by its customers

   “even before noon there was a considerable patronage”

   Synonymstrade

   Broaderbusiness

   Narrowercustom

1. 1.

   support by being a patron of

   Broadersustain
2. 2.

   be a regular customer or client of

   “We patronize this store”

   “Our sponsor kept our art studio going for as long as he could”

   Synonymspatronizepatronisesupportkeep going

   Broaderfoster

Other forms of patronage

plural

patronages·

past tense

patronaged·

present participle

patronaging·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about patronage

What does patronage mean?

patronage means "the act of providing approval and support". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in patronage?

patronage has 3 syllables: pat-ro-nage. The stress falls on "pat". In IPA it is /ˈpætɹənɪdʒ/.

What is another word for patronage?

Close synonyms include backing, backup, championship, clientele, business. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is patronage a common word?

patronage is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.