Dominant
Dominant adjective - Coming before all others in importance.
Usage example: the dominant authority on the English language
Key is a synonym for dominant in main topic. In some cases you can use "Key" instead the word "Dominant" as an adjective or a noun, when it comes to topics like major, fundamental, central.
Key
Key adjective - Coming before all others in importance.
Usage example: maintains that Sir Isaac Newton remains the key figure in physical science
Dominant is a synonym for key in main topic. You can use "Dominant" instead the word "Key" as an adjective or a noun, if it concerns topics such as major, crucial, fundamental.
Mutual synonyms
Both words in one sentence
- However, instead of going on to play the A section again in the new key, the piece just stops abruptly (on the dominant chord!) — hence the title: it's "waiting for" a phrase in the new key which will never come.
Source: Truck Driver's Gear Change -
Oddly despite being a dominant trait, and the key reason he gets a job assisting the Dream Maker, it is only referred to in a handful of episodes afterwards.
Source: Mr. Imagination -
It ratchets up the half-step an astounding seven times times, putting us a fifth above where we started
at which point Jason Robert Brown resolves it as a dominant, and lands us back in the original key.
Source: Theatre / The Last Five Years
Cite this Source
Key and Dominant. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/dominant/key
Dominant & Key. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/dominant/key>.
Key or Dominant. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/dominant/key.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "dominant" and "key" have occurred on timeline