Monopolies

How to spell monopolies

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce monopolies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does monopolies mean?

1. nounSituations in which a single company or group has exclusive control over the supply of a product or service.

Monopolies in a sentence

• The regulator broke up several utility monopolies to encourage competition.

• Critics argue that large tech monopolies stifle smaller rivals.

Where does monopolies come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes through Latin monopolium from the Greek monopolion, which combined monos, meaning 'single' or 'alone', with polein, meaning 'to sell'. Literally, then, a monopoly was the right of one party alone to sell a particular good, and the ancient world worried about such exclusive trading rights just as modern regulators do. English adopted the singular 'monopoly' in the early 1500s, mostly in the context of royal grants that gave a single merchant or company sole rights to trade in something. The same monos element shows up in familiar relatives such as 'monotone', 'monorail', and 'monogamy', all of which keep that sense of 'one'. The plural 'monopolies' simply follows the standard English rule of changing a final consonant plus -y to -ies, which is the small spelling step that trips writers who reach for 'monopolys'.

How the word is built

• mono- (single, one)
• pol- (sell, from Greek polein 'to sell')
• -y (noun suffix)
• -ies (plural)