dominant
/ˈdɒmɪnənt/US/ˈdɑmənənt/
dominant noun: the fifth major tone of a musical scale (five major steps above the note in question); thus G is the dominant of C, A of D, and so on.
Noun
dominant (plural dominants)
- The fifth major tone of a musical scale (five major steps above the note in question); thus G is the dominant of C, A of D, and so on.
- The triad built on the dominant tone.
- Of an allele, that a heterozygote for the allele has the same phenotype as the homozygote.
- Finally, if we suppose provisionally that the mutant genes are dominant just as often as they are recessive, selection will be far more severe in eliminating the disadvantageous dominants than in eliminating the disadvantageous recessives.1930, R. A. Fisher, J. H. Bennett, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, page 50
- A species or organism that is dominant.
- Landowners cannot afford to cut submerchantable trees, yet many hesitate to cut merchantable dominants and codominants at the risk of downgrading the residual stand.1966, John R. Bassett, Thinning loblolly pine from above and below, New Orleans, La: Southern Forest Experiment Station
- The dominating partner in sadomasochistic sexual activity.
- This calendar is not for the faint of heart (unless you have some strong butch dominant to hold you while you swoon)1988 December 25, Wickie Stamps, “Leather, Peace and Wombyn over Forty”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 24, page 7
- His story was a fable you told dominants in training to stress the importance of comprehending the depths of your submissive's needs.2011, Jayne Rylon, Mistress's Master, page 65
- Antonyms:
- submissive
Adjective
dominant (comparative more dominant, superlative most dominant)
- Ruling; governing; prevailing
- The dominant party controlled the government.
- The member of a dominant race is, in his dealings with the subject race, seldom indeed fraudulent, […] but imperious, insolent, and cruel.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
- Synonyms:
- imposing
- Predominant, common, prevalent, of greatest importance.
- The dominant plants of the Carboniferous were lycopods and early conifers.
- All other elements are mere "impurities" when their abundances are compared with those of these two dominant elements.2009, H. Stephen Stoker, General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, page 10
- Synonyms:
- prevalent
- Of a body part, preferred and used with greater dexterity than the other, as the right hand of a right-handed person or the left hand of a left-handed one.
- Designating the follicle which will survive atresia and permit ovulation.
- Being the dominant
- Dominant seventh
dominant meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
dominant in Tamil
- ஆதிக்கமான, ஆதிக்கமுடைய, ஆதிக்கம் மிகுந்த, மேலாதிக்கம், மேம்பட்ட, தலைமையான
dominant in Urdu
- dominant, predominant
- غالب ġālib
- dominant, victor, subdued
- مسلط musallat
dominant in Bengali
- প্রভাবশালী, প্রধান, কর্তৃত্বপূর্ণ, বিশিষ্টতম
dominant in Malayalam
- ആധിപത്യമുളള, അധികാരമുളള, പ്രബലമായ, ശ്രേഷ്ഠമായ, പഞ്ചമസ്വരം
More languagesFewer languages
- dominant in Punjabi
- ਦਬਦਬੇ ਵਾਲਾ, ਦਬਦਬੇ ਵਾਲੇ
- dominant in Tagalog
- nananaig
- dominant in Arabic
- سَائِد sāʔid, شَائِع šāʔiʕ
- dominant in Malay
- dominan
- dominant in Thai
- เป็นใหญ่
Examples of dominant in a sentence
- A dominant seventh chord is spelled with a diminished seventh interval, not a major sixth.
- Intrastate war is now the dominant form of military conflict in international politics.
- Presidentialism is the dominant form of government in the continental Americas.
Synonyms of dominant
Antonyms
Forms of dominant
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | dominants |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more dominant |
| superlative | most dominant |
Origin of dominant
Borrowed from Middle French dominant.
Words formed from dominant
- secondary dominant
- subdominant
- antidominant
- codominant
- co-dominant
- dominance
- dominantly
- dominant seventh
- dominant seventh chord
- equidominant
- eudominant
- heterodominant
- hyperdominant
- immunodominant
- monodominant
- nondominant
- overdominant
- phenodominant
- postdominant
- pseudodominant
- quasidominant
- semidominant
- serodominant
- superdominant
- transdominant
- tremordominant
- underdominant
- undominant
Phrases with dominant
Questions about dominant
- What does dominant mean?
- Dominant means the fifth major tone of a musical scale (five major steps above the note in question); thus G is the dominant of C, A of D, and so on.
- What is dominant in Tamil?
- Dominant in Tamil is ஆதிக்கமான, ஆதிக்கமுடைய, ஆதிக்கம் மிகுந்த. See Dominant meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is dominant?
- Dominant can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce dominant?
- Dominant is pronounced /ˈdɒmɪnənt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of dominant?
- The plural of dominant is dominants.
Words near dominant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dominant (page history and authors); dominant (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); غالب (Urdu) (page history and authors); dominant (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dominant (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dominant (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dominant.wav.
Cite this entry: “dominant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dominant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.