Domino, also known as a dominoe, is a small, flat, rectangular block used for gaming. It has one or more dots, and can be made of wood, bone, plastic, or even metal. Dominoes come in many colors, and some have a unique pattern or texture. They may have a pattern of pips on the surface or be engraved with numbers, letters, or symbols. Some have a color printed on both sides; this makes it easier to identify the piece as it falls.

A player or team scores points by laying down dominoes in careful sequence on the table. They must be positioned so that the ends touch each other and their dots add up to a number that is a multiple of five. Players must also avoid leaving gaps in the chain. Dominoes are sometimes used as a learning tool to teach students about addition and multiplication.

The word domino is derived from the Latin for “fly,” but it’s been around longer than that. In the early 18th century, it came to Europe, where its use expanded from a game to a settling of disputes over land and property ownership. In fact, 19th-century rural England had the highest incidence of feuding in Europe, and dominoes were routinely used to settle these disputes.

Dominos are also widely used for artistic creations. They can be arranged in straight lines, curved lines, grids that form pictures when they fall, or 3-D structures like towers and pyramids. Artists create a blueprint for their designs, and then follow that plan when they create the dominoes. Hevesh, a professional domino artist with more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, creates mind-blowing domino installations for movie productions and events. Her largest setups take several nail-biting minutes to fall, but they do so according to the laws of physics.

When the first domino falls, much of its potential energy converts to kinetic energy and provides the push needed for the next domino to fall. That energy continues to transfer from one domino to the next until it’s all over.

In writing, a domino can represent a scene or an element of character that influences the direction of the story. For example, a character might say something that forces another character to do the same thing. In fiction, the scene domino is often ineffective on its own but becomes powerful when it’s part of a larger narrative.

While the term domino is mostly associated with games, it can also refer to a business model or organizational structure. For example, Domino’s shifted from its traditional pizza delivery to offering meals at the restaurant after the company’s CEO, David Brandon, was replaced by Domino’s new CEO, Patrick Doyle. The company had been struggling financially, and Doyle knew that it was time for a change. By making this move, Doyle addressed the main complaint that customers had about Domino’s: a lack of quality food and a long wait time for deliveries. The company’s revenue rose as a result of this change.