territoriality
Americannoun
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territorial quality, condition, or status.
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the behavior of an animal in defining and defending its territory.
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attachment to or protection of a territory or domain.
noun
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the state or rank of being a territory
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the behaviour shown by an animal when establishing and defending its territory
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of territoriality
First recorded in 1890–95; territorial + -ity
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.
This territoriality makes it easier for human observers to get relatively close to them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2025
Joe Galusha started scrutinizing Northwest gulls during the Vietnam War as a way to better understand hostility, aggression and territoriality.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 20, 2019
But ego, territoriality and philosophical differences resulted in paralysis — and ultimately, the material suggests, lead to an inability to prevent 9/11.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 28, 2018
SR: There’s this other thing you talk about, territoriality.
From Salon ● May 6, 2017
These are, in fact, the engineering artifacts of intelligent beings: roads, highways, canals, farmland, city streets—a pattern disclosing the twin human passions for Euclidean geometry and territoriality.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
