Meaning & use
monopoly
Complete control of the trade or supply of a product or service by a single company, excluding competitors.
See it in a sentence
The company held a near monopoly on the region's electricity supply for decades.
Regulators broke up the monopoly to encourage competition and lower consumer prices.
A note on using this word
A monopoly involves a single dominant seller, while an 'oligopoly' describes control shared among just a few large competitors.
Words with a similar meaning
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Words with an opposite meaning
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