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Dominance vs Submissive - What's the difference?

dominance | submissive |

As nouns the difference between dominance and submissive

is that dominance is the state of being dominant; of prime importance; supremacy while submissive is one who submits.

As an adjective submissive is

meekly obedient or passive.

dominance

Noun

(en noun)
  • The state of being dominant; of prime importance; supremacy.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=September 29 , author=Jon Smith , title=Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.}}
  • Being in a position of power, authority or ascendancy over others.
  • (physiology) The superior development of or preference for one side of the body or one of a pair of organs; such as being right-handed.
  • (biology, genetics) The property of a gene such that it suppresses the expression of its allele.
  • Derived terms

    * cross-dominance * dominancy

    submissive

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • one who submits
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Meekly obedient or passive.
  • * 1756 , Edmund Burke, The Works of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke , G. Bell & sons, page 314:
  • The powerful managers for government were not sufficiently submissive to the pleasure of the possessors of immediate and personal favour, sometimes from a confidence in their own strength natural and acquired; sometimes from a fear of offending their friends, and weakening that lead in the country, which gave them a consideration independent of the court.
  • * 1913 , Edward Lee Thorndike, Educational Psychology , Teachers college, Columbia university, page 92:
  • If the human being who answers these tendencies assumes a submissive behavior, in essence a lowering of head and shoulders, wavering glance, absence of all preparations for attack, general weakening of muscle tonus, and hesitancy in movement, the movements of attempt at mastery become modified into attempts at the more obvious swagger, strut and glare of triumph.
  • * 2007 , Brian Watermeyer, Disability and Social Change: A South African Agenda , HSRC Press, page 269:
  • Once oppression has been internalised, little force is needed to keep us submissive .

    Derived terms

    * submissively (adverb) * submissiveness (noun)

    Synonyms

    * docile * meek * slavish * timid * obedient

    Antonyms

    * dominant, domineering (ruling ) * defiant, rebellious (ignoring )