A dome can be considered as an arch which has been rotated around its vertical axis. As such, domes have a great deal of structural strength. A small dome can be constructed of ordinary masonry, held together by friction and compressive forces. Larger domes built after Brunelleschi's dome that triumphantly spanned the crossing of Santa Maria del Fiore, the duomo of Florence, have all been built as double domes, with inner and outer shells.

The concave triangular or trapezoidal sections of vaulting that provide the transition between a dome and the square base on which it is set and transfer the weight of the dome are called pendentives. (A less sophisticated version of a pendentive is a squinch.) Under the dome illustrated at left, the pendentives bear circular medallions in bas relief.
A pendentive is a constructive device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for the dome. In masonry the pendentives thus receive the weight of the dome, concentrating it at the four corners where it can be received by the piers beneath. Prior to the pendentive's development, the device of corbelling or the use of the squinch in the corners of a room had been employed. The first attempts at pendentives were made by the Romans, but full achievement of the form was reached only by the Byzantines in Hagia Sophia at Constantinople (6th cent.). Pendentives were commonly used in Renaissance and baroque churches, with a drum often inserted between the dome and pendentives.

A half-dome forms the head of an exedra or its smaller version, a niche. In Late Antiquity, the exedra developed into the apse, with separate developments in Romanesque and Byzantine practice.

Many domes are topped by a lantern, a structure with openings (or windows) to admit light in the cupola.

Many sports stadiums are domed, especially in climates that have widely-variable summer and winter weather. The first such stadium was the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. A major improvement to the domed stadium was accomplished with the construction of SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, the first domed stadium with a retractable roof.

A saucer dome is the architectural term used for a low pitched shallow dome. Described geometrically as being of circular base and a segmental (less than a semicircle) section.

Gaining in popularity from the 18th century onwards, the saucer dome is often a feature of interior design, viewed from below it resembles the shallow concave shape of a saucer. The dome itself being often contained in the space between ceiling and attic is invisible externally. These domes are usually decorated internally by ornate plaster-work, occasionally they are frescoed.

They are seen occasionally externally in Byzantine churches and mosques.