These words refer to the ability or right to rule. Jurisdiction is the most formal of these words and the most restricted in application. It indicates an officially or legally predetermined division of a larger whole, a division within which someone or something has the right to rule or decide: The Arbitration Court has sole jurisdiction in the determining of industrial awards; the three-nation commission that was given jurisdiction to govern the internationalized city; an advertising manager whose jurisdiction included the company’s public-relations activities. Sovereignty approaches jurisdiction in formality, but it stresses absolute or autonomous rule over something considered as a whole. In this case, the official right to rule is not stressed so much as the fact of actual ruling, however this has come about: British mercantile interests that acquired sovereignty over the scattering of emirates adjacent to the port; nations traditionally suspicious of surrendering the slightest token of sovereignty to any supranational governing body; American revolutionaries who rejected England’s claim of sovereignty over the colonies.

Dominion is less clear-cut in its implications. It can refer, on one hand, to assigned partial rule, like jurisdiction : an Act that gave the Department of Civil Aviation dominion over all private and commercial flying activities. On the other hand, it can refer like sovereignty to absolute control, although here it often refers strictly to the control of a superior over an inferior: the inescapable dominion of the rich and educated over the poor and unschooled. As an actual title for a territory, the word can suggest a colony that has gained internal self-rule but whose external affairs still come under the sovereignty of the colonizer: a colony that advanced to the status of a dominion and finally of a full-fledged republic. Sway can now sound old-fashioned; traditionally it has referred to a sphere in which something has absolute control: the succession of European nations that held sway over various portions of Africa; Aristotle held undisputed sway over the thinking of many medieval philosophers. As in the last example, the word is in danger of being taken in the sense of mere influence rather than absolute control; this possibility occurs because of an unrelated meaning of sway : a demagogue able to sway mass audiences to his point of view.

Authority and power are less formal than the other words here and are much more general in application. Power refers to any exercising of control over something, often with a stress on forcefulness or strength: The monarchy won universal recognition of its sovereignty only after the period of its greatest power had begun to fade. Often, the word refers simply to the ability to choose, understand or control: Only man of all the animals has the power to reason. A related use reveals the word at its most general in referring to any sort of mental physical strength or force: a work of great emotional power ; brute power used to put down the revolt. Authority can indicate an officially determined right to rule: a committee given authority to rule on the credentials of disputed delegations. But the word can also refer to anyone exercising power, whether assigned to do so or not: a power gap in the new republic that remained until several tribal leaders assumed authority and formed a caretaker government. The word can indicate all sources of power taken as a whole: a child who always rebelled against authority . In related uses, the word can refer to the expert or the definitive: an authority on antique glass; an actor who executed the role with consummate authority .