[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/dominant.html)

[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [dictionaries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/) / [The school dictionary](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/) / dominant

[← D](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/D/)

# dominant

«dominant» in Mova's school dictionary: **the strongest, most important or most powerful in a group** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (dominant; more dominant, most dominant); noun (a dominant — music, rare)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Dominant means the strongest, most important or most powerful in a group. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#m1)

2) Dominant can mean the most noticeable, the thing you see most, like a dominant colour. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#m2)

3) (science) A dominant gene is one whose feature shows up even if you got it from only one parent. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#m3)

4) (music) The dominant is the fifth note of a scale. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday life and sport it means stronger than the rest: «a dominant team». In science (genetics), brown eyes are often given as an example of a dominant feature (simplified), while blue are recessive. With animals, the dominant one leads the pack. Most people have a dominant hand, the one they write with. Phrases: «dominant hand», «dominant species», «dominant player».

### examples

- Lions are the dominant animals on the savannah. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#x1)
- My dominant hand is my left hand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#x2)
- Red is the dominant colour in the painting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#x3)
- The dominant wolf eats first. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#x4)
- Our team was dominant in the second half. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#x5)
- The gene for brown eyes is usually dominant. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#x6)
- English is the dominant language on the internet. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/#x7)

### note

Adjective; noun: dominance; verb: dominate. Spelled with -ant (not -ent). Opposite in genetics: recessive. Myth: eye colour is controlled by several genes, so the simple «brown beats blue» rule is only an approximation.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «dominant» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dominant/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.