fiefdom

[feef-duhm]

noun

1. the estate or domain of a feudal lord.

2. Informal.,  anything, as an organization or real estate, owned or controlled by one dominant person or group.

fiefdom

/ ˈfiːfdəm /

noun

1. (in feudal Europe) the property owned by a lord

2. an area over which a person or organization exerts authority or influence

Word History and Origins

Origin of fiefdom¹

First recorded in 1805–15; fief + -dom

Example Sentences

Campus ideologues would scream bloody murder as the fiefdoms they have painstakingly constructed are dismantled, predictably appealing to the values they eradicated from campuses.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Some 44,000 security forces have been deployed across the country of 30 million to keep protests in check, especially in former opposition fiefdoms in the south and west.

Read more on Barron's

She brought Lewandowski with her to run the massive department as if it’s their own fiefdom.

Read more on Salon

But Museveni's critics see it differently - arguing that the president has ruled with an iron fist since seizing power, and has turned the country into his family's fiefdom.

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I believe in the government institutions that make us a union of states rather than a pastiche of fiefdoms.

Read more on Salon