I. dōˈmān also dəˈ- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French demaine, domaine, from Latin dominium, from dominus master, owner — more at dame
1. archaic : landed property which one has in his own right : demesne 2
2.
a. : the possessions of a sovereign, feudal lord, nation, or commonwealth
built up the domains of the Papal States — R.A.Hall b. 1911
the great Forest of Galtres … was a royal domain — Edwin Benson
the buffaloes and bears marched in single file, as did also the Indians when traveling beyond the domain of their nation — S.C.Williams
b. : a territory possessed and governed of right or over which authority is exercised of right
the Roman Church has had a far greater domain and longevity than the Roman Empire — Weston La Barre
where great cattle domains stretched over seemingly endless miles — American Guide Series: Texas
c. : field of control or range of governance
our highways and roads have been in the domain of state and local governments — T.H.White b. 1915
poetical works belong to the domain of our permanent passions — Matthew Arnold
— see eminent domain , public domain
d. : a region distinctively marked or wholly overspread or dominated by some physical feature
a domain of peaks, forests, and roaring rivers — R.L.Neuberger
3.
a. : a distinctly delimited sphere of knowledge or of intellectual, institutional, or cultural activity (as a humanistic or scientific discipline, a form of artistic creation, a department of research)
the domain of biblical scholarship
psychiatry seems unwilling merely to resist invasion of its domain — Bernard DeVoto
the domain of ascertainable fact should be clearly distinguished from the domain of personal opinion — Stuart Hampshire
b. : a circumscribed realm of human concern
in the domain of rural economy
argot is really a dialect whose domain is social instead of regional — A.L.Guérard
c. : one's peculiar and exclusive function or field of active cultivation and responsibility
without intruding on the expert's domain — S.L.A.Marshall
problems which were formerly regarded as belonging exclusively to the domain of philosophers — W.V.Houston
intellectual qualities which liberal education has typically staked out for itself as its own special domain — H.D.Gideonse
4.
a. : a mathematical aggregate to which a variable is confined
the domain of real numbers
the domain of rational numbers
b. : an aggregate of elements each of which is a first element of an ordered pair
5. : a small region of a ferromagnetic substance that contains many atoms all oriented in the same direction so that the group as a whole acts as a completely saturated magnet, the relative orientations of these regions determining the magnetization of the magnet
6. logic
a. : the realm of applicability of an idea or notion or the range of values within which a variable may govern
b. for a relation R : the class of things x for which there is at least one thing y such that xRy holds
the domain of father of is the class of male parents
7. : the segment of speech throughout which a linguistic feature such as grammatical agreement or a pitch or stress contour extends
Synonyms: see field
II. noun
1. : any of the three-dimensional subunits of a protein that together make up its tertiary structure, that are formed by folding its linear peptide chain, and that are variously considered to be the basic units of protein structure, function, and evolution
2. : the highest taxonomic category in biological classification ranking above the kingdom
3. : a large subdivision of the Internet consisting of computers or sites with a common purpose (as providing commercial, nonprofit, educational, or government information) or a common geographic location (as those in a given country) and denoted in Internet addresses by an abbreviation (as .com for commercial sites, .gov for government sites, or .ca for sites located in Canada) ; also : domain name herein