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

Individual ports operate as separate fiefdoms rather than as part of a national system.

From Washington Post

In fact, steering the business away from these fiefdoms has been a major focus from the moment she started.

From Digiday

Struggling firms had to sell and swear allegiance to pre-existing fiefdoms as underwhelmed venture capital investors who never saw the returns they hoped for cooled on making further investments into ad tech.

From Digiday

One of Volley’s most popular voice games is Yes Sire, an immersive tale that imagines the player as the ruthless ruler of a fiefdom.

From MIT Technology Review

Mulling this over this morning, I kept thinking about Snap, which sold stock in its IPO that gave new shareholders no votes at all, and Facebook, which is controlled by Mark Zuckerberg as his personal fiefdom.

From TechCrunch

“The United States cannot sit back and watch an al Qaeda fiefdom rise up in Iraq,” the Iraqi official said.

From The Daily Beast

But Chechnya has become a republic of fear, the fiefdom of one man: its mercurial 36-year-old president, Ramzan Kadyrov.

From The Daily Beast

Cassano—under Sullivan and perhaps before—ran his own fiefdom and supposedly was making gobs of money for the company and himself.

From The Daily Beast

When one medieval fiefdom defeated another they would drag back its jewels, gold, tapestries and art objects as the spoils of war.

From The Daily Beast

At the auctions it was fiefdom against fiefdom and the spoils were dragged back to Japan.

From The Daily Beast