From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmonopolymo‧nop‧o‧ly /məˈnɒpəli $ məˈnɑː-/ ●●○ noun (plural monopolies) 1 [countable]BBCONTROL if a company or government has a monopoly of a business or political activity, it has complete control of it so that other organizations cannot compete with itmonopoly of They are demanding an end to the Communist Party’s monopoly of power. the state monopoly of televisionmonopoly on/in For years Bell Telephone had a monopoly on telephone services in the US. a monopoly in copper trading2 [countable] a large company that controls all or most of a business activity The company is a state-owned monopoly.3 [singular]OWN if someone has a monopoly on something, that thing belongs to them, and no one else can share it Teachers do not have a monopoly on educational debate.
Examples from the Corpus
monopoly• Because the state tried to enforce a monopoly on ideas, intellectuals were both at great risk and terrifically influential.• It is not good for consumers if one company has a monopoly in any area of trade.• the De Beers diamond monopoly• Lewie and his monopoly were gone, a loss of at least a few hundred million dollars more.• It was not easy to persuade the monarchy to let go of its monopoly of power.• In contrast, public monopolies that are thrust fully into competition have little choice but to please their customers.• It is poor families who are usually stuck with the worst consequences of school monopoly and bureaucratization.• Tax concessions for new companies and the end of the state monopoly on import-export trade were also announced.• After decades of dreary state-run television monopolies, most of these markets are starting to open up to private competitors.• Within a few years, the company had a virtual monopoly over all trade with India.• Microsoft, which has had a virtual monopoly, has managed 53 % a year.monopoly of power• At the same time it amended the republic's constitution to abolish the guaranteed Communist Party monopoly of power.MonopolyMonopoly trademark a very popular type of board game that has been sold since the 1930s. Players use toy money to buy streets and buildings on squares on the board, and then make other players pay rent if they move onto those squares. The squares on the board show the names of real streets in cities in the US (=in an American Monopoly set), London (=in a British Monopoly set), or other big cities around the world. People sometimes use the expression Monopoly money to mean a very large amount of money You know how much it costs to buy an apartment in Tokyo? It's Monopoly money!From Longman Business Dictionarymonopolymo‧nop‧o‧ly /məˈnɒpəliməˈnɑː-/ noun (plural monopolies)1[countable, uncountable]ECONOMICS a situation where a business activity is controlled by only one company or by the government, and other companies do not compete with itThe national airline is no longer a monopoly. At least 10 new airlines now compete against it.monopoly onFor years, it enjoyed a monopoly on oil exploration and production in Argentina.The company has been granted a monopoly over Italian high-speed train lines.There remains the threat of monopoly.2have/hold a monopoly on something if one person, group, or organization has a monopoly on something, they have something that others do not haveThis bank does not have a monopoly on bad loans.Origin monopoly (1500-1600) Latin monopolium, from Greek, from mono- ( → MONO-) + polein “to sell” 