MONOPOLY

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Monopoly mean? 

• MONOPOLY (noun)
  The noun MONOPOLY has 3 senses:

1. (economics) a market in which there are many buyers but only one seller

2. exclusive control or possession of something

3. a board game in which players try to gain a monopoly on real estate as pieces advance around the board according to the throw of a die

  Familiarity information: MONOPOLY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MONOPOLY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(economics) a market in which there are many buyers but only one seller

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

when you have a monopoly you can ask any price you like

Hypernyms ("monopoly" is a kind of...):

market; market place; marketplace (the world of commercial activity where goods and services are bought and sold)

Domain category:

economic science; economics; political economy (the branch of social science that deals with the production and distribution and consumption of goods and services and their management)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "monopoly"):

corner (a temporary monopoly on a kind of commercial trade)

Derivation:

monopolise (have or exploit a monopoly of)

monopolistic (having exclusive control over a commercial activity by possession or legal grant)

monopolize (have or exploit a monopoly of)

monopolize (have and control fully and exclusively)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exclusive control or possession of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

They have no monopoly on intelligence

Hypernyms ("monopoly" is a kind of...):

ascendance; ascendancy; ascendence; ascendency; control; dominance (the state that exists when one person or group has power over another)

Derivation:

monopolise (have or exploit a monopoly of)

monopolist (someone who monopolizes the means of producing or selling something)

monopolize (have or exploit a monopoly of)

monopolize (have and control fully and exclusively)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A board game in which players try to gain a monopoly on real estate as pieces advance around the board according to the throw of a die

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("Monopoly" is a kind of...):

board game (a game played on a specially designed board)

Domain usage:

trademark (a formally registered symbol identifying the manufacturer or distributor of a product)

 Context examples 

The U.S. Orphan Drug Act (1983) encourages development of these therapeutics by tax breaks and a seven-year monopoly on drug sales.

(Orphan Drug, NCI Thesaurus)

But he set up no monopoly of the general attention, or the conversation.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Two years ago a very large sum was smuggled through the Estimates and was expended in acquiring a monopoly of the invention.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

New DNA analysis reveals that, before their mysterious disappearance, the Norse colonies of Greenland had a “near monopoly” on Europe’s walrus ivory supply.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)

It's a place that has an ancient monopoly in suits about people's wills and people's marriages, and disputes among ships and boats.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In doing so they have discovered an evolutionary split in the walrus, and revealed that the Greenland colonies may have had a near monopoly on the supply of ivory to Western Europe for over two hundred years.

(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)