dominance
Americannoun
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control; authority; rule; supreme influence.
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the condition of being dominant, or having the authority to influence or control.
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Psychology. the disposition of an individual to assert control in dealing with others.
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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.
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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.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dominance
First recorded in 1810–20; domin(ant) + -ance
Explanation
When you have power over others you are said to have dominance. For years, the British Empire had dominance over much of the world, ruling vast stretches of Africa, India, and Asia. In packs of animals, the males will often fight to determine dominance, i.e., who is top dog. Or top lion. This happens in classrooms too, with the teacher needing to establish dominance over unruly students. If your football team has dominance over its league, it means they usually beat—or dominate—most of the other teams in the league.
Vocabulary lists containing dominance
Trumps
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"The Great Gatsby," Chapter 1 Vocabulary
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Donald Trump Foreign Policy Address
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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.
Taiwan aims to become an "Asian hub" for the production of drones free of Chinese components, capitalising on the island's dominance of AI technology and semiconductor manufacturing.
From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2026
According to the new theory, the temporary dominance of the heavy neutrino could have left recognizable signatures in those ancient signals.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 1, 2026
The arrangement unravelled in December 2020, when Tshisekedi moved to break Kabila's parliamentary dominance and build his own majority.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
AI agents could erode its search-engine dominance, financing needs for its AI ambitions are sky-high, and it doesn’t have a consumer AI agent app that matches up exactly with what Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic offer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
Archaeologists have found no evidence of large-scale warfare at this time, and thus suggest that Hopewell probably did not achieve its dominance by conquest.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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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.
