bailiwick

noun

bai·​li·​wick ˈbā-li-ˌwik 

-lē-

1

law enforcement : the office or jurisdiction of a bailiff (see bailiff sense 1a)

2

: the sphere in which one has superior knowledge or authority : a special domain (see domain sense 4)

… concerns at the spy agency that the Pentagon is intruding into its traditional bailiwick.

—Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti

Did you know?

The first half of the word bailiwick comes from the Middle English word for "bailiff"—in this case, a term referring to a sheriff or chief officer of a town in medieval England, not the officer who assists today in U.S. courtrooms. Bailiff comes, via Anglo-French, from the Medieval Latin verb bajulare, meaning "to care for" or "to support." The second half of bailiwick comes from wik, a Middle English word for "dwelling place" or "village," which ultimately hails from the Latin word vicus, meaning "village." (This root is also thought to have given English -wich and -wick, suffixes used in place names like Norwich and Warwick.) Although bailiwick dates from the 15th century, the "special domain of knowledge" sense we use most often today did not appear in English until the middle of the 19th century.

Synonyms

• area
• arena
• barony
• business
• circle
• demesne
• department
• discipline
• domain
• element
• fief
• fiefdom
• field
• firmament
• front
• game
• kingdom
• line
• precinct
• province
• realm
• specialty
• sphere
• terrain
• walk

Examples of bailiwick in a Sentence

questions about organization of the fund drive are my bailiwick

Recent Examples on the Web

How can the speaker expect New Yorkers to even consider her plan to add 21 commissioners, from Parks to Sanitation to Health to Transportation, to the confirmation test, when one of the most important posts that is already in the Council’s bailiwick is not getting fair consideration? —New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 23 May 2024

Marcos brings the votes of his father’s bailiwick in the Ilocano-speaking region of northern Luzon to the ticket, while Duterte will likely deliver votes from the Visayan-speaking southern part of the country. —Sheila S. Coronel, Foreign Affairs, 5 May 2022

And for all the deserved flack first-year defensive coordinator Steve Wilks has received this season, coordinating a secondary to handle long-developing plays in zone coverage is his bailiwick. —Dieter Kurtenbach, The Mercury News, 10 Feb. 2024

But the company was squarely under his bailiwick: OpenAI was to be part of the research wing of the startup incubator Y Combinator, where Altman was CEO. —WIRED, 18 Nov. 2023

Word History

Etymology

Middle English baillifwik, from baillif + wik dwelling place, village, from Old English wīc, from Latin vicus village — more at vicinity

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

bailiwick

noun

bai·​li·​wick

ˈbā-li-ˌwik

: one's area of special interest or expertise