- (music) the fifth note of the diatonic scale

- exercising influence or control
"television plays a dominant role in molding public opinion"
"the dominant partner in the marriage"

- of genes

- producing the same phenotype whether its allele is identical or dissimilar

1. Ruling; governing; prevailing; controlling; predominant; as, the dominant party, church, spirit, power.

"The member of a dominant race is, in his dealings with the subject race, seldom indeed fraudulent, . . . but imperious, insolent, and cruel." -- Macaulay.

Dominant estate
or tenement
(Law), the estate to which a servitude or easement is due from another estate, the estate over which the servitude extends being called the servient estate or tenement. Bouvier. Wharton's Law Dict.

Dominant owner
(Law), one who owns lands on which there is an easement owned by another.

Syn. -- Governing; ruling; controlling; prevailing; predominant; ascendant.

1. The fifth tone of the scale; thus G is the dominant of C, A of D, and so on.

Dominant chord
(Mus.), the chord based upon the dominant.