the word domain

Get a deeper understanding of the word domain. This is a word common to the internet person who has a website or who is thinking of building a website. Your domain name brands your online presence. Internet service providers bend over backwards to get you listed on their servers by having you register a domain name with them.

But where does the word domain come from ?


In the old Latin world of the Roman empire the word dominus referred to being in possession of something. For example Dominus was a title given to a Roman overlord who owned servants and slaves. The Dominus was the master or owner. From Dominus came Dominium. The term "dominium mundi" referred to the masters of the world. By the time the Anglo-French and the middle English came around the words demayne and demeine came to mean the same as dominium.

The word domain was part of the English language in the 15th century. The word no longer only refers to master or owner of land and slaves. Today the word domain can be used to represent any of the following :

• a marked region with distinct features
• the domain of science refers to anything that is specific to that science
• the domain of art is anything that is specific to art - see artifact
• in computer science it is a set of elements that defines a function
• for Internet users the word domain refers to a group of sites that have similar properties, for example government sites have the domain of .gov and the domain name might be anything that brands the government service such as www. citydump.gov. The .com domain is for commercial and information sites, etc.

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If you write online about domains and would like to know how to improve the density of your content try using some of these words and keyphrases with the word domain.