Domino

How to spell domino

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce domino

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does domino mean?

1. nounA small flat rectangular tile marked with a number of spots on each half, used in a tile-laying game.
2. nounUsed to describe a chain reaction in which one event sets off a sequence of similar events, as in a 'domino effect'.

Domino in a sentence

• He placed the last domino on the table and won the round.

• The factory closure had a domino effect on every supplier in the town.

• One domino had a missing spot, so the set was incomplete.

• One late payment triggered a domino effect across the whole budget.

Where does domino come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the eighteenth century from French domino, the name of a hooded cloak worn at masquerades. The French term is generally traced back to the Latin dominus, meaning 'lord' or 'master', and many dictionaries link it to a Latin churchly phrase such as benedicamus Domino ('let us bless the Lord'), perhaps because the black hood resembled a priest's winter garment. By the 1730s the same word had attached itself to the small black-and-white gaming tiles, probably because the spotted pieces, dark on one side and pale on the other, recalled that black-and-white masquerade hood. The modern 'domino effect', describing how one falling tile topples the next, only became common in the twentieth century. The spelling stays close to the Latin and French source and adds an English -es plural (dominoes), which is the part that trips writers up.

How the word is built

• domino (from Latin dominus: lord, master, via French) treated as a whole, unanalysable noun