What does control mean?
Control denotes the power or ability to direct, regulate, or restrain people, processes, machines, or oneself. As a verb, it means exercising that authority — managing a budget, steering a vehicle, keeping one's temper in check — while as a noun it names both the authority itself and, in science, a standard against which results are compared. The word is ubiquitous in everyday and specialized language: quality control in industry, birth control in medicine, air traffic control in aviation, remote control in the home. Its connotation depends on context: in engineering it is purely functional, while in relationships "control" can suggest coercion or unhealthy dominance, making "controlling" a pointed criticism. Derived from a medieval accounting term meaning a duplicate register kept to verify records, control has evolved into one of English's most versatile words for order, regulation, and command.
The power, authority, or ability to direct, regulate, or command a person, group, activity, or thing.
"The committee has full control over the project's budget."
A person or thing serving as a standard of comparison in a scientific experiment, left untreated or unaltered to verify results.
"Growth was measured against a control grown under normal conditions."
A device, mechanism, or set of instruments used to operate or regulate a machine or process.
"He reached for the volume control on the stereo."
To direct, command, or exercise authority over a person, group, or activity.
"One party has controlled parliament for a decade."
The plural is common when referring to multiple mechanisms or regulatory measures, such as aircraft controls or government price controls.
"The cockpit's controls lit up as the engines powered on."
"Control" began as an accounting term — literally a "counter-roll", a duplicate ledger used to check the original — before it came to mean power over anything at all.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of control
Control entered English in the late sixteenth century from Anglo-French "contrerolle" and Medieval Latin "contrarotulus", literally a "counter-roll" — a duplicate copy of a scroll or ledger kept alongside the original so that its contents could be verified. The root is Latin "rotulus", a small wheel-shaped roll of parchment, which also gives us "roll", "role", "enroll", and "parole". From this bookkeeping sense of checking accounts, the meaning broadened over time to supervision generally, and then to the modern senses of command, regulation, and mastery.
Related word forms
How control is actually used
Control is neutral in most technical contexts but can carry negative connotations in interpersonal ones — describing someone as "controlling" implies unhealthy dominance. In British English the verb historically took a doubled consonant spelling ("controll"), now obsolete; the standard spelling everywhere today is single-l.