1
Core meaning
The process of adapting wild animals or plants for human use through taming, cultivation, or selective breeding.
Example
Genetic evidence places the domestication of maize thousands of years ago.
domestication
/dəˌmestɪˈkeɪʃən/ · duh-mes-tih-KAY-shunnoun
The process of adapting wild animals or plants for human use through taming, cultivation, or selective breeding.
Use domestication to express this relationship precisely: the process of adapting wild animals or plants for human use through taming, cultivation, or selective breeding.
What domestication Really Means
The word becomes easier to use when its closely related senses are separated and compared.
2
Common noun frame
Use this noun in a complete noun phrase, adding the complement that identifies what it refers to when needed.
Example
Animal domestication transformed patterns of settlement and trade.
3
Analytical distinction
Choose it when this exact concept matters; a related term may describe its cause, evidence, or opposite instead.
Example
Larger seeds may provide evidence of early plant domestication.
Use domestication Naturally
Notice how the surrounding noun or clause reveals the exact shade of meaning.
Genetic evidence places the domestication of maize thousands of years ago.
Animal domestication transformed patterns of settlement and trade.
Larger seeds may provide evidence of early plant domestication.
Precision Matters
Domestication overlaps with several common words, but each carries a different emphasis.
domestication
vs.Means the process of adapting wild animals or plants for human use through taming, cultivation, or selective breeding.
nurture
Means to care for and encourage growth or development.
domestication
vs.Means the process of adapting wild animals or plants for human use through taming, cultivation, or selective breeding.
lineage
Means descent from a common ancestor or a sequence of development from an earlier predecessor.
domestication
vs.Means the process of adapting wild animals or plants for human use through taming, cultivation, or selective breeding.
exploit
Means to take advantage of a resource, opportunity, weakness, or person.
domestication
vs.Means the process of adapting wild animals or plants for human use through taming, cultivation, or selective breeding.
induce
Means to cause or bring about.
Test domestication in Context
The community was cultivating and gradually adapting a wild plant for human use.
1
Changes in seed size suggest that the community had begun the ___ of wild grain.