Field, domain, province, sphere, territory, bailiwick are comparable when they denote the limits in which a person, an institution, or a department of knowledge, of art, or of human endeavor appropriately or necessarily confines his or its activity or influence and outside of which by implication he or it may not or should not go.
Field implies restriction by choice or by necessity, but it seldom suggests permanent limitation <a European war narrows the field of commerce for neutral American nations> <he chose the development of industries in the South as his field of investigation> <the philosopher and the practical man … each is in his own field, supreme —Buckle > <a writer whose reputation … has been pretty much confined to the whodunit field —Kelly >
Domain is used chiefly in reference to departments of knowledge, of art, and of human endeavor viewed abstractly; it implies exclusive possession and control of a clearly defined field and a title to regard all outside interference or all intrusion into that field as trespass or invasion <the domain of science> <the domain of the spiritual> <what is the difference between the legitimate music of verse and the music it attains by trespassing on the domain of a sister art? —Babbitt > <those who believe in the reality of a world of the spirit—the poet, the artist, the mystic—are at one in believing that there are other domains than that of physics —Jeans >
Province is used in reference not only to the arts and sciences, each of which may be said to have its own domain, but also to a person or institution that because of his or its office, aims, or special character can be said to have jurisdiction, competence, power, or influence within clearly defined limits <it is within the province of a parent rather than of a teacher to discipline a pupil for misconduct out of school> <it is often stated that art goes beyond its province when it attempts to teach morals> <the almost impertinently realistic explorations into behavior which are the province of the psychiatrist —Sapir > Province is also used in the sense of function (see also FUNCTION 1 ) and in the sense of a part of a larger domain <I should like the reader to accept engineering as a province of physics: so that the feats of the one may serve as credentials for the discoveries of the other —Darrow >
Sphere, even more than domain, throws emphasis on clear circumscription of limits; it therefore suggests apartness rather than fundamental differences and carries no hint of danger of trespass or interference <the aesthetic and ethical spheres … were never sharply distinguished by the Greeks —Dickinson > <in the sphere of morals we must often be content to wait until our activity is completed to appreciate its beauty or its ugliness —Ellis > <in the life of a man whose circumstances and talents are not very exceptional there should be a large sphere where what is vaguely termed “herd instinct” dominates, and a small sphere into which it does not penetrate —Russell > <a long and profound process of social change … but this time in the economic sphere —Strachey >
Territory comes very close to domain in implying a field possessed and controlled and regarded as one’s own; it does not, however, carry the implications so strong in domain of rightful ownership, of sovereignty, and of the title to inviolability; it may even suggest that the field has been usurped or taken over by the science, art, or activity in question <prose has preempted a lion’s share of the territory once held, either in sovereignty or on equal terms, by poetry —Lowes > <if passageways connect the domain of physics with the domains of life or of spirit, physics ought in time to discover these passageways, for they start from her own territory —Jeans >
Bailiwick, basically the jurisdiction of a bailiff, is increasingly used in an extended and playful sense in reference to an individual and the special and limited province or domain in which he may or does exercise authority. It often also carries a connotation of petty yet despotic display of power <a politician whose influence does not extend beyond his own bailiwick > <he will not get along with others until he learns to keep within his own bailiwick > <we may neither be angry nor gay in the presence of the moon, nor may we dare to think in her bailiwick —Stephens > <the largest problems are in the bailiwick of the social scientist —Street >