Meaning & use
domestic
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Happening inside one country rather than involving other countries.
Grammar: Almost always sits before a noun: domestic flights, domestic politics.
Patterns
- domestic policy
- domestic market
The airline cut its domestic flights after fuel prices rose.
Domestic sales rose while exports remained flat.
The president focused on domestic issues such as health care.
adjectivebefore a noun
Connected with the home, household tasks or family life.
Grammar: Used before a noun: domestic chores, domestic life.
Patterns
- domestic chores
She shared the domestic chores with her roommates.
He found domestic life peaceful after years of travel.
The firm sells domestic appliances like toasters and kettles.
adjectivebefore a noun
Of an animal, kept by people as a pet or for farm use rather than living wild.
Grammar: Used before an animal noun and contrasts with wild: a domestic cat.
Patterns
- domestic animal
Dogs were among the first domestic animals.
A domestic cat may still hunt birds in the garden.
Farmers raise domestic livestock such as sheep and goats.
nouncountableold-fashioned
A person employed to do housework, especially in someone else's home.
Grammar: Countable noun, now somewhat old-fashioned: a domestic and her employer.
The family had hired a domestic to help with cleaning.
Many domestics in the story lived in the attic.
She worked as a domestic before opening her own shop.
Common combinations
- domestic violence
- The charity offers shelter to victims of domestic violence.
- domestic flight
- We took a domestic flight to Chicago.
- domestic market
- The company is expanding beyond its domestic market.
- domestic appliance
- Washing machines are the most common domestic appliance.
- domestic affairs
- The senator rarely comments on domestic affairs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- household
- Household is used for things belonging to a home, but it never means within the country.
- national
- National also means within a country but focuses on the nation as a whole, while domestic contrasts with foreign.
- internal
- Internal is broader and can describe the inside of any group or system, not only a country.
- tame
- Tame describes an animal that is not afraid of people, while domestic describes a species bred long ago to live with them.
Opposites
Word family
- domesticate verb
- to train an animal or plant for human use
- domesticated adjective
- tamed or good at home tasks
- domestically adverb
- within one's own country or home
- domesticity noun
- home and family life
Commonly confused: domestic or domestic vs. domesticated?
domestic vs domestic vs. domesticated
Domestic describes a kind of animal in general, while domesticated stresses that a particular animal was tamed.
Practice
The airline operates both international and ___ flights within the United States.
Choose one answer.
Domestic flights stay within a single country. Foreign would mean the opposite, and the other options do not fit this meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “domestic”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.