domination

What it means

1. countableuncountableControl by means of superior ability, influence, position, or resources; prevailing force.

   First, relations of power and domination have been and continue to be significantly constitutive of social relations in modern societies.

   2001, Angus Stewart, Theories of Power and Domination, →ISBN

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   What this means is that the subordination of women by men is pervasive, that it orders the relationship of the sexes in every area of life, that a sexual politics of domination is as much in evidence in the private spheres of the family, ordinary social life, and sexuality as in the traditionally public spheres of government and the economy.

   2012, Sandra Lee Bartky, Femininity and Domination, →ISBN

   England took 33 minutes to make their domination count, the goal coming from the most familiar source as captain Harry Kane headed home Declan Rice's corner for his 74th goal in 109 internationals.

   2025 September 9, Phil McNulty, “Serbia 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport

   Synonyms: thrall

2. countableuncountableThe exercise of power in ruling; sovereignty; authority; government.

   [...] thou and thine vſurpe / The Dominations, Royalties, and rights / Of this oppreſſed boy; [...]

   c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 4, column 2

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   I am no friend to ariſtocracy [...]. [... O]n the ſuppoſed ruin of the conſtitution, [...] if it muſt periſh, I would rather by far ſee it reſolved into any other form, than loſt in that auſtere and inſolent domination.

   1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, 3rd edition, London: J. Dodsley, page 28

   In such a [slaveholding] people, the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of freedom [...].

   1775, Edmund Burke, Conciliation with America

3. countableuncountableChristianityA dominion; an angel from a high order of angels in the celestial hierarchy.

   Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.

   1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

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   The succession of orders given in this passage is not exactly the same as in the succeeding chapters, in which it is as follows: -- Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominations, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels, Angels.

   1872, The Sacristy: A Quarterly Review of Ecclesiastical Art and Literature, page 20

   According to Dionysius, the dominations have the duty in the heavenly host of regulating the tasks of the angels and "through them the majesty of God is manifested." Through the efforts of the dominations - who are naturally seen only rarely by mortals -- the very order of the cosmos is maintained.

   2010, Matthew Bunson, Angels A to Z: A Who's Who of the Heavenly Host, →ISBN, page 80

In a sentence

First, relations of power and domination have been and continue to be significantly constitutive of social relations in modern societies.

2001, Angus Stewart, Theories of Power and Domination, →ISBN

Where it comes from

1. Latindominātiō“rule, dominion”
2. Old Frenchdominacion
3. Middle Englishdomynacion
4. Englishdomination

From Middle English domynacion, from Old French dominacion, from Latin dominātiō (“rule, dominion”), from dominor (“domineer; rule”); see dominate.