dominance

[dom-uh-nuh ns]

noun

rule; control; authority; ascendancy.

the condition of being dominant.

Psychology. the disposition of an individual to assert control in dealing with others.

Animal Behavior. high status in a social group, usually acquired as the result of aggression, that involves the tendency to take priority in access to limited resources, as food, mates, or space.

Neurology. the normal tendency for one side of the brain to be more important than the other in controlling certain functions, as speech and language.

Also dom·i·nan·cy.

Origin of dominance

First recorded in 1810–20; domin(ant) + -ance

Related formsnon·dom·i·nance, nounself-dom·i·nance, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for dominancy

Historical Examples of dominancy

Their church is nothing if not absolute, and dominancy is their aim.
Ireland as It Is
Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)
Dominancy within the human kind must be secured at all costs.
Science and Morals and Other Essays
Bertram Coghill Alan Windle
True, the war was lost so far as any hope of winning European dominancy was concerned.
G. H. Q.
Frank Fox
During its dominancy the victim respects neither law not convention; the goal is his only object.
Idling in Italy
Joseph Collins
The dominancy of heredity through these infinite varieties is sometimes very striking.
Dactylography
Henry Faulds

British Dictionary definitions for dominancy

dominance

noun

control; ascendancy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for dominancy

dominance

1819; see dominant + -ance. Related: Dominancy.

dominancy in Medicine

dominance

[dŏm′ə-nəns]

n.

The condition or state of being dominant.