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In Prosodic Phonology, domains for the application of phonological patterns are modeled as a Prosodic Hierarchy whose architecture is characterized by adherence to the Strict Layer Hypothesis. The theory predicts, among other things, that i) prosodic domains cluster on a single universal set of domains (‘Clustering’), and ii) no level of prosodic structure is skipped in the building of prosodic structure (‘Strict Succession’). In this paper, we report some of the results from a large-scale typological survey on the empirical evidence of word domains which challenge this theory. First, in languages where a prosodic word domain cannot be motivated, Clustering and Strict Succession are violated. We substantiate this claim by an in-depth study of word structure in Vietnamese. Second, languages in which multiple domains between the foot and the phonological phrase can be motivated constitute another deviation from Clustering. This point is illustrated by a detailed examination of the multiple word domains in Limbu. We conclude that the theory does not correspond well to the cross-linguistic evidence and advocate an alternative approach in which prosodic domains are conceived of as intrinsic and highly specific properties of individual rules or constraints