Dominant Pole and System Characteristics

I think you had better read up about bode plots etc...

Its not just the poles that determine characteristics of a circuit, its also the zeros and the resulting phase shift versus gain.

I could talk about bode plots phase shift pole and zeroes for hours, but I'd be waving my hands and arms about describing them so its not much use on here.

Try wikipedia and 'Bode plot'

Hmm. It seems to me that Electroman understated the case (would that be a first?)

First throw away what you think you know. Using common parlance: if there is a truly dominant pole, the system will always be stable. What determines stability is the interaction between the different poles and zeroes (if any).

Beyond that, you need a decent text. Bode plots are useful design tools, but not perfect for analysis. I prefer to supplement them using Nyquist plots. The advantage of a Nyquist plot is that it gives direct information about stability - the disadvantage that frequency information (good for design) is hidden.

Finally, a word of warning. Some of the good texts around the subject (and particularly those that use some of the terminology you have quoted) are written by control engineers. However, if you are designing electronic circuits loading effects mean that the frequency responses may not remain the same after you close the loop; if that looks likely you will need to extend your tool set.
[N.B. Personally, I do my final analysis tests (not designs) using the impedance of the circuit with the loop closed. I also supplement these with large-signal ringing tests; it is surprising how many apparently "unconditionally stable" circuits can exhibit limit-cycle behaviour.]

Caveat constructor