My dock disappeared.

This hide-and-seek behavior can get triggered if you accidentally press the keyboard shortcut for the setting, which is Option-Command-D. To return the Mac’s Dock to its always-visible status, press Option-Command-D again to toggle the setting back the other way.

Another way to make the Dock stop disappearing is to go under the Apple menu in the top left corner of the screen. Choose the System Preferences option and then click in the Dock icon on the screen of control panels. In the Dock Preferences box, remove the checkmark from the box next to “Automatically hide and show the Dock.” The Dock Preferences box has other settings you can adjust as well, including the size of the icons and the part of the screen (left, bottom or right) to anchor the Dock.

If the Mac is set in full screen mode dock will disappear , click on esc button to show the dock .

If the above doesn't work, try doing a Dock restart using the following Terminal command:

killall Dock

Log out/in and test. If that doesn’t work, you need to look in your user Library/Application Support/Dock for the .db. Use the Finder “Go To Folder” command. Enter ~/Library/Application Support/Dock. Move the .db to your desktop.

Then try a dock reset.

Applications/Utilities/Terminal enter the command

killall Dock

Log out/in test. If it works okay, delete the .db from the desktop.

If the Dock is the same, return the .db to where you got them from, overwriting the newer ones.

If you prefer to make your user library permanently visible, go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Learned from leonie.

When the Mac is in a normal mode means ( full screen is not as activated ) , open system preferences > click on dock uncheck the box of automatically hide and show the dock so it will be permanently visible .

I have already done this, the issue is when I am using Word or Chrome the Dock disappears and then take a second or 2 to open when I put my mouse at the bottom of the screen. I was hoping for an option to keep it there 100% of the time regardless of what I a doing, kind of like MS Windows does.

It is SO frustrating when I am switching between apps frequently whilst working, that I can't just click on what I want. I use Word, Excel, Chrome, Outlook, Photos, Photoshop and WhatsApp all at the same time and numerous times just literally 2 seconds apart such as when uploading images to a website or copying text from Excel to Word etc.

Waiting for the Dock to reappear is more than a little annoying!

Does this mean that I have absolutely no option to keep the dock displayed at all times?

Are you using any type of cleaners , anti virus , unwanted softwares , apps in your Mac ? Use etrecheck tool to find out .See this link https://etrecheck.com/

As it is difficult to say what's the reason without seeing the report .Also without knowledge of terminal commands they are not be executed and avoided , create a new user account and verify what are the results in it .