monopoly
/məˈnɑpəli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.84 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A situation, by legal privilege or other agreement, in which solely one party (company, cartel etc.) exclusively provides a particular product or service, dominating that market and generally exerting powerful control over it.
noun
An exclusive control over the trade or production of a commodity or service through exclusive possession.
noun
The privilege granting the exclusive right to exert such control.
noun
The market thus controlled.
name
A board game in which players use play money to buy and trade properties, with the objective of forcing opponents into bankruptcy.
Example Sentences
- "The sale of the leaves and roots was a Government monopoly, and from it the Kings of Kôr derived a large proportion of their private revenue."
- "In 1918 a Chinese company was given a monopoly to run a service between Victoria and the districts of Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po. Five years later this monopoly was transferred to the Hong Kong and Yaumati Ferry Company, together with the right to run a service to Yau Ma Tei."
- "It has jailed environmental activists and is planning to limit the power of judicial oversight by handing a state-approved body a monopoly over bringing environmental lawsuits."
- "Exactly! You can’t reduce the competition when nobody is competing! You could not be describing a monopoly more clearly if you were wearing a metal top hat while driving a metal car after winning second prize in a beauty contest!"
- "Ciudadanos is keen on fighting monopolies and on vigorous Scandinavian-style labour reforms to help the unemployed retrain and find jobs."
- "On building companies, [Sam] Altman frequently channeled [Peter] Thiel’s “monopoly” strategy, the belief that all founders should “aim for monopoly” to create a successful business."
Etymology
From Latin monopōlium, from Ancient Greek μονοπώλιον (monopṓlion, “a right of exclusive sale”), from μόνος (mónos, “sole”) + πωλέω (pōléō, “to barter, sell”). By surface analysis, mono- + -poly.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /məˈnɑpəli/
- British English: /məˈnɒpəli/