Syllable division derived from spelling — this word is not in the pronouncing dictionary, so no phonetic transcription is shown rather than a guessed one.
pre-emption is a noun meaning "the judicial principle asserting the supremacy of federal over state legislation on the same subject". It carries 4 recorded senses.
the judicial principle asserting the supremacy of federal over state legislation on the same subject
law
the right of a government to seize or appropriate something (as property)
the right to purchase something in advance of others
a prior appropriation of something
“the preemption of bandwidth by commercial interests”
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for pre-emption come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.