- past tense form of domesticate.
- past participle of domesticate.
domesticated
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Domesticated means trained to live or work for humans, i.e. pets and farm animals. For centuries humans have believe that dogs are domesticated wolves, but DNA testing reveals that they are in fact a different species. Domesticated comes from domus, the Latin word for home, which is easy to remember — instead of a "roof over our heads" think of your "home as a dome." Domus gives us not only domesticated (adapted to the home or the farm), but also domestic (cooking and cleaning are "domestic" chores), a domestic (someone like a maid who works inside a home as a paid employee), and domicile (a building that serves as a home). Thus domesticated means an animal tamed to live in your home — or, as some women like to joke, a man.
Vocabulary lists containing domesticated
Dog Vocabulary: A Canine Lexicon
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Cat Vocabulary: A Feline Lexicon
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"The Great Gatsby," Chapter 1 Vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Such contradictions, that cats can be both domesticated and yet somewhat feral, is part of their appeal, says comedian Drennon Davis, whose four cats have found internet fame via his short-form videos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Humans domesticated the birds and used them as messengers and as food for thousands of years.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
But there’s also some solid evidence that humans domesticated ourselves, selecting tameness over aggression.
From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2026
Instead of positioning the product as a domesticated race car, he realized this was Ferrari’s chance to sell something less tangible but infinitely more valuable: the fulfillment of every fan’s childhood dreams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
As if he’d been a circus beast trained to behave like a domesticated creature, the mammoth dog left the dead man’s side and slipped out of our car through the opposite rear window.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
