Sometimes Dom a title of a monk in the Benedictine, Carthusian, Cistercian, and certain other monastic orders.
Usually Dom a Portuguese title affixed to a man's given name; Sir: formerly a title of certain dignitaries.
domain.
domestic.
dominant.
dominion.
Dominica.
Dominican.
state or condition
freedom
martyrdom
rank or office
earldom
domain
kingdom
Christendom
a collection of persons
officialdom
Deo Optimo Maximo
informal Dirty Old Man
(sometimes capital) RC Church a title given to Benedictine, Carthusian, and Cistercian monks and to certain of the canons regular
(formerly in Portugal and Brazil) a title borne by royalty, princes of the Church, and nobles
What does -dom mean? The suffix -dom denotes nouns for domains, collections of persons, rank or station, or general condition. It is often used in a variety of everyday and technical terms. The suffix -dom comes from Old English -dōm, meaning “statute, judgment, or jurisdiction.” Another descendant in modern English from this stem is doom, which today means “unavoidable ill fortune; ruin, death” but originally referred to a judgment or legal decision, especially an unfavorable one.
First recorded from 1710–20; shortened from Latin dominus “lord, master”
First recorded in 1985–90; shortened from dominant ( def. )
First recorded in 1965–70; from chemical name 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine; first synthesized in 1963 by U.S. psychopharmacologist Alexander Shulgin (1925–2014)
Middle English; Old English -dōm; cognate with Old Norse -dōmr, German -tum; see doom
From Latin Deō Optimō Maximō
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
By selling out Shiv, as he always does, and exploiting Kendall's insecurity that he's "not Logan," Roman has kenneled his siblings while securing a new dom in the White House.
From Salon ● May 20, 2023
But this may be a dead end, a dom dam if you will.
From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2020
Fizzy wine wasn’t desirable, and removing the fizz was the problem that the dom was trying to fix.
From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2017
Lord Ashcroft, the Tories' deputy chairman and biggest single donor, announced at the beginning of March that he was a "non dom" - someone who does not pay UK tax on overseas earnings.
From BBC ● Mar. 16, 2010
He’d become a good friend, unstintingly sharing the wis dom he’d gained during his failed attempt on the peak in 1995.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Likho’s biggest fan may be a man named Dom Gomez.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
When Dave Shae boarded the first-class cabin for his Emirates flight from New York to Milan, he was greeted with bottomless Dom Perignon and white-glove caviar service.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026
Haggling over prices has become a part of daily working life for Dom Meletti, who is the director of DLM Tree Services.
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
"In the supermarket, you find luxury products, sea urchins or Dom Perignon champagne, and vegetables have become extremely expensive," pushing some people to do their shopping in a neighbouring town.
From Barron's ● Mar. 20, 2026
Mrs. Van Dom comes into the family room.
From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements
The growing American appetite for chain pizza made Domino’s Pizza DOM -2.52%decrease; red down pointing triangle one of the best restaurant stocks to own for decades.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
MPs DOM is largely made up of small, biologically accessible molecules that may stimulate or suppress microbial growth, disrupt nutrient cycles, or interact with metals and other pollutants.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 31, 2025
DOM is in a spacious underground room, with a glowing bar done in striated honey onyx as its cynosure.
From New York Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
We want somebody who can build code, analyze the DOM, understands page performance, and implement design and functionality changes that produce results.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2015
By DOM The ancient magistrate is having lunch at noon and these are our attempts at capturing his thoughts in the midst of dining.
From Praetor's Lunch by Dom
And eueruyches monnes dom. to his owere dure churreþ.
From Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts by Hall, Joseph
Bi þare séé in ore vt lete. þar he demeþ mony riht dom. ⁊ diht ⁊ wryt mony wisdom.
From Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts by Hall, Joseph
“And the other person who had that presence was Dom. And he was gone as well.”
From The Guardian ● Mar. 12, 2021
“So it has been a little bit of a process with Dom. It’s not always, ‘Here’s an opening, here you go.’
From New York Times ● Aug. 29, 2018
"Oh—hi, Mrs. Van Dom. This is Bobby. I'm really sorry to be calling so late. Could I talk to Alicia?"
From "Things Not Seen" by Andrew Clements
Dom., seems to me yet but a suckling in swaddling clothes, mewing and peevish in the arms of his mother, that has been long laid in the cold kirkyard, beside her predecessor, in Abraham's bosom.
From The Annals of the Parish; or, the chronicle of Dalmailing during the ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder by Galt, John
Dom. that the great calamity happened, the which took place on a Sabbath evening in the month of February.
From The Annals of the Parish; or, the chronicle of Dalmailing during the ministry of the Rev. Micah Balwhidder by Galt, John
The hotel’s full name, Deo Optimo Maximo, abbreviated D.O.M., derives from a Latin inscription found in an adjacent church and evokes the site’s previous ecclesiastical incarnation.
From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2014
"Ye think Oi 'm a dommed fool?" he ejaculated, hoarsely.
From Beth Norvell A Romance of the West by Parrish, Randall
"There, master, I haint been drinking none on't, but this plaguey ship is so dommed uneasy, I can't walk steady, and I feels very sick, I does; I think I be's going to die."
From Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 2 August 1848 by Various
Peelin' praties fer that dommed pisener in th' kitchen.
From The Promise A Tale of the Great Northwest by Hendryx, James B. (James Beardsley)
The Scottish savant looked up: ‘It is a dommed mismanaged affair,’ he said.
From The Disentanglers by Lang, Andrew
"The dommed robber has made fool of us'n," he cried savagely.
From The Highgrader by Hutchison, D. C.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
