When something is domestic, it relates to your home, your household, or your country.

A domestic chore is a task you do at home, like washing dishes or folding laundry. Domestic life means the everyday routines of living with your family: eating dinner together, helping with homework, or walking the dog. When people talk about domestic matters, they mean things happening within their own country rather than in foreign nations. The United States has a domestic policy (laws about things inside the country) and a foreign policy (how it deals with other countries).

The word can also describe animals that live with humans rather than in the wild. Dogs, cats, chickens, and horses are domestic animals because people have raised and bred them for thousands of years to live alongside us. Wild wolves became domestic dogs over many generations. A domesticated animal has been tamed and adapted to living with people, quite different from its wild ancestors or relatives.

Sometimes people use domestic to mean peaceful home life, as in domestic bliss, though it can also refer to conflicts within a household. The key idea is that domestic always points inward: to your home, your family, or your nation, rather than outward to the wider world.