Word Confusion: Dominant versus Dominate

Plural for the noun: dominants

Gerund: dominating

Third person present verb: dominates
Past tense or past participle: dominated
Present participle: dominating

• [Of a high place or object] Overlooking others
• [Genetics] Relating to or denoting heritable characteristics which are controlled by genes that are expressed in offspring even when inherited from only one parent (often contrasted with recessive)
• [Ecology] Denoting the predominant species in a plant (or animal) community
• [Decision theory; of a choice] At least as good as the alternatives in all circumstances, and better in some

Noun:
[Genetics] A dominant trait or gene

• [Ecology] A dominant species in a plant (or animal) community

[Informal; masculine, dom] The participant in a BDSM sexual encounter or relationship to whom power and control are transferred

• [Informal; feminine, domme] Dominatrix

[Music] The fifth note of the diatonic scale of any key, or the key based on this, considered in relation to the key of the tonic

• To exercise control
• To predominate

To occupy a commanding or elevated position

Verb, transitive:
To have a commanding influence on; exercise control over

• To be the most important or conspicuous person or thing in
• [Of something tall or high] To have a commanding position over
• To overlook

To rule over

• To govern
• To control

To tower above

• To overlook
• To overshadow

To predominate, permeate, or characterize

[Mathematics; of a series, vector, etc.] To have terms or components greater in absolute value than the corresponding terms or components of a given series, vector, etc.

[Linguistics; of a node in a tree diagram] To be connected with (a subordinate node) either directly by a single downward branch or indirectly by a sequence of downward branches

Corn is the dominant crop of Iowa.

Our hotel room was dominant to the building next door.

It is the dominant gene causing polydactyly.

The mutant allele is dominant to the wild type.

Red spruce is a dominant species in many types of forest.

Holding back here is a dominant strategy.

Noun:
This disorder is inherited as a dominant.

Oak is a long-established dominant.

There’s a couple that won’t last. He’s a dominant and she’s a dominatrix.

In this piece, a dominant seventh is required.

His need to dominate was overwhelming.

She always says a lot in meetings, but she doesn’t dominate.

Verb, transitive:
The company dominates the market for operating system software.

The race was dominated by the 1992 champion.

Green was the dominant color in the room.

The picturesque city was dominated by the cathedral tower.

A tall pine dominated the landscape.

There are still too many countries where war dominates life.

“. . . one function dominates another if the magnitude of the ratio of the first function to the second increases without bound as the input increases without bound” (Kazi).

“The node that dominates all other nodes in a tree, and is itself dominated by none, is called the root node” (Node).