Meanings of preeminent figure in English

Like Mayweather, he was the preeminent figure of his time in his division.

Like Charles Stewart Parnell, the preeminent figure in the corresponding part of the last century, Hume rarely provokes a neutral reaction.

The preeminent figure of this type in state and legislative politics for several decades preceding the Civil War was Thurlow Weed of New York.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), whose Faust served as the inspiration for Berlioz's opera, is regarded as the preeminent figure of German literature.

(Recently, a successor named Dick Foth, a longtime friend to John Ashcroft, assumed some of Coe's duties, but Coe remains the preeminent figure.)