monopoly

noun

mo·​nop·​o·​ly mə-ˈnä-p(ə-)lē 

plural monopolies

1

: exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action

2

: exclusive possession or control

no country has a monopoly on morality or truth

—Helen M. Lynd

3

: a commodity controlled by one party

had a monopoly on flint from their quarries

—Barbara A. Leitch

4

: one that has a monopoly

The government passed laws intended to break up monopolies.

Did you know?

You're probably familiar with the word monopoly, but you may not recognize its conceptual and linguistic relative, the much rarer oligopsony. Both monopoly and oligopsony are ultimately from Greek, although monopoly passed through Latin before being adopted into English. Monopoly comes from the Greek prefix mono-, which means "one," and pōlein, "to sell." Oligopsony derives from the combining form olig-, meaning "few," and the Greek noun opsōnia—"the purchase of victuals"—which is ultimately from the combination of opson, "food," and ōneisthai, "to buy." It makes sense, then, that oligopsony refers to a buyer's market in which the seller is subjected to the potential demands of a limited pool of buyers. Another related word is monopsony, used for a more extreme oligopsony in which there is only a single buyer.

Examples of monopoly in a Sentence

The government passed laws intended to break up monopolies.

Recent Examples on the Web

And the American public deserves to know how Ticketmaster’s unfair practices may be enabled by its misuse of monopoly power. —Ethan Millman, Rolling Stone, 20 Nov. 2023

By the way, there is a wider problem in the region of establishing states that have a monopoly on the use of force. —Emily Bazelon, New York Times, 20 Nov. 2023

Nor does the Kremlin have a monopoly on ideology in today’s Russia. —Maria Snegovaya, Foreign Affairs, 16 Nov. 2023

But with prices in free fall around the world, the one-time diamond monopoly has been forced to allow more and more flexibility, finally removing the restrictions altogether. —Thomas Biesheuvel, Fortune, 11 Nov. 2023

Horacio Villalobos / Contributor | Corbis News This week, Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker rose as a key figure in Google's defense against the Justice Department's monopoly claims. —Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 2 Nov. 2023

The union has always used its monopoly clout, even when not advertising it, to force similar terms on Ford, GM and Chrysler (now owned by Stellantis). —Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., WSJ, 31 Oct. 2023

Testifying on Monday in Google’s landmark antitrust trial, Mr. Pichai directly contradicted the Justice Department’s claims that his company’s huge payments to companies like Apple to be the default internet search option on their popular devices represented its unchecked monopoly power. —David McCabe, New York Times, 30 Oct. 2023

The Justice Department and a group of state attorneys general had spent the previous six weeks making their case that Google broke federal monopoly law in maintaining its 90 percent market share in the search and search advertising markets. —Eva Dou, Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2023

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Word History

Etymology

Latin monopolium, from Greek monopōlion, from mon- + pōlein to sell

First Known Use

1534, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing monopoly

• anti-monopoly

• anti-monopoly

Kids Definition

monopoly

noun

mo·​nop·​o·​ly mə-ˈnäp-(ə-)lē 

plural monopolies

1

a

: complete control over the entire supply of goods or a service in a certain market

b

: complete possession

2

: a commercial product or service controlled by one person or company

3

: a company that has a monopoly

Legal Definition

monopoly

noun

mo·​nop·​o·​ly mə-ˈnä-pə-lē 

plural monopolies

1

: exclusive control of a particular market that is marked by the power to control prices and exclude competition and that especially is developed willfully rather than as the result of superior products or skill see also antitrust, Sherman Antitrust Act

2

: one that has a monopoly