Monopoly
[mə'nɒp(ə)lɪ] or [mə'nɑpəli]
Definition
(noun.) a board game in which players try to gain a monopoly on real estate as pieces advance around the board according to the throw of a die.
(noun.) exclusive control or possession of something; 'They have no monopoly on intelligence'.
(noun.) (economics) a market in which there are many buyers but only one seller; 'a monopoly on silver'; 'when you have a monopoly you can ask any price you like'.
Typist: Tito--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The exclusive power, or privilege of selling a commodity; the exclusive power, right, or privilege of dealing in some article, or of trading in some market; sole command of the traffic in anything, however obtained; as, the proprietor of a patented article is given a monopoly of its sale for a limited time; chartered trading companies have sometimes had a monopoly of trade with remote regions; a combination of traders may get a monopoly of a particular product.
(n.) Exclusive possession; as, a monopoly of land.
(n.) The commodity or other material thing to which the monopoly relates; as, tobacco is a monopoly in France.
Checker: Olivier
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Exclusive possession.
Editor: Ricky
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Privilege, engrossment, appropriation, exclusiveness, preoccupancy,impropriation
ANT:Participation, partnership, community, competition, free-trade
Inputed by Hubert
Unserious Contents or Definition
A modern device for impoverishing others. From Grk. monux, swift-footed, and polloi, the people. A swift kick for the people.
Inputed by Barnard
Examples
- We cannot give our workmen a monopoly in the foreign, as we have done in the home market. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Those merchants and manufacturers enjoy a sort of monopoly in the country which is so indulgent to them. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- A monopoly granted either to an individual or to a trading company, has the same effect as a secret in trade or manufactures. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- For years his name was branded on every Bell telephone set, and his patents were a mainstay of what has been popularly called the Bell monopoly. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Our graziers still continue subject to the old monopoly. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- No bounty upon exportation, no monopoly of the home market, can raise that value. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- They converted what they could of the conquered people to Islam; the Christians they disarmed, and conferred upon them the monopoly of tax-paying. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- It is quite otherwise with the employment into which the monopoly naturally attracts, if I may say so, the capital of the London merchant. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Without a monopoly, however, a joint-stock company, it would appear from experience, cannot long carry on any branch of foreign trade. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Whatever expense Great Britain has hitherto laid out in maintaining this dependency, has really been laid out in order to support this monopoly. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the highest which can be got. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The monopoly raises the rate of profit, but it hinders the sum of profit from rising so high as it otherwise would do. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- My carbon-transmitter patent was sustained, and preserved the monopoly of the telephone in England for many years. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Turkey and Greece once had a monopoly of it. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- Our master manufacturers think it reasonable that they themselves should have the monopoly of the ingenuity of all their countrymen. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- It steers a course between exploitation by a bureaucracy in the interests of the consumer--the socialist danger--and oppressive monopolies by industrial unions--the syndicalist danger. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- In the same year (146 B.C.) the Roman Senate and Equestrians also _murdered_ another great city that seemed to limit their trade monopolies, Corinth. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Monopolies of this kind are properly established against the very nation which erects them. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Checked by Chiquita