What does domestication mean?
Domestication is the process by which humans take wild plants or animals and adapt them, over generations, for their own use — through taming, breeding, and selection of traits such as docility, size, or yield. It applies literally to species like dogs, cattle, wheat, and rice, but it can also be used figuratively to describe a person's gradual adjustment to home life or a taming of something wild in spirit. In academic contexts the word carries no judgment: it simply names one of the most consequential transformations in human history, underpinning agriculture and settled civilization. Applied playfully to people — a bachelor's "domestication" after marriage, for instance — it acquires a light, teasing tone. Because it captures both biological change and cultural control, domestication remains central vocabulary in archaeology, biology, and everyday speech alike.
The process of taming wild animals or cultivating wild plants for sustained human use, typically involving heritable changes brought about by selective breeding.
"The domestication of the horse transformed transport and warfare across Eurasia."
In scientific contexts this sense emphasizes multi-generational genetic change, distinguishing domestication from mere taming of an individual animal.
The act of accustoming someone or something to home life, or the state of being so accustomed; figuratively, a softening or taming of character.
"Everyone remarked on his rapid domestication once he moved into the suburbs."
This extended sense is often used humorously or ironically when describing people.
The plural is rare and appears mostly in scholarly writing referring to multiple separate instances or events of domestication, such as independent domestications of the same crop in different regions.
"Researchers have identified at least two independent domestications of rice."
Dogs weren't just tamed — they may have essentially domesticated themselves, scavenging near human camps until the friendliest ones stuck around.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of domestication
Domestication derives from the Latin verb domesticare, meaning "to dwell in, to tame," formed from domesticus ("of the house"), which itself comes from domus, the Latin word for "house." The term entered English via the verb domesticate, attested from around the early 17th century, with the noun following shortly after. It shares its root with related words such as domicile and dome, all tracing back to the same Proto-Indo-European root *dem-, meaning "house" or "household."
Related word forms
How domestication is actually used
The word is neutral-to-positive in scientific writing about agriculture and anthropology, but can carry a mildly humorous or ironic connotation when applied to people, suggesting they have been made tame or settled by home life.
Easily confused with domestication
"Domestic" is an adjective meaning relating to the home or one's own country, while "domestication" is the noun naming the process of taming or adapting something to human use.