domination

Etymology

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

noun

1. Control 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
   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
2. The exercise of power in ruling; sovereignty; authority; government.
   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. (Christianity) A dominion; an angel from a high order of angels in the celestial hierarchy.
   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, page 80
4. (BDSM) A fetish characterized by control/power over and discipline of one's sexual partner.
   By night, I am Mistress Shay Noir, the Black queen of domination. The world's most beautiful sadist. 2017, Teejay LeCapois, The Black Dominatrix Universe, page 121
5. (topology) Synonym of cover
   With more than 200 research papers published on the algorithmic complexity of domination and related parameters of graphs, it is difficult to know what to cover in a relatively short chapter on the subject, especially since it could take quite a few pages just to cover the preliminaries of computational complexity and the many algorithm design paradigms that have been applied to domination problems. 1998, Teresa W. Haynes, Stephen T. Hedetniemi, Peter J. Slater, Fundamentals of Domination in Graphs, page 299