Dominance

How to spell dominance

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dominance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dominance mean?

1. nounThe state of having power, control, or superiority over others.

Dominance in a sentence

• The company's dominance of the smartphone market lasted nearly a decade.

• Years of training gave the older sibling clear dominance in every chess match.

Where does dominance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin dominus, meaning 'lord' or 'master', a noun that itself grew from domus, the Latin word for 'house' or 'household', so the original idea was the master of the house. From dominus came the verb dominari, 'to rule over' or 'to be lord', and its present participle dominans gave a sense of one who holds sway. English picked up 'dominance' in the seventeenth century, partly through French, to name the state of being dominant or in control. The same dominus root sprouted a large family of relatives in English, including 'dominate', 'domain', 'dominion', and even 'dame'. Remembering the master-of-the-house root helps fix the single 'm' and the -ance ending, since the word is built plainly on domin- plus -ance rather than any doubled letter.

How the word is built

• domin- (from Latin dominus: lord, master)
• -ance (noun suffix forming a state or quality)