market
see also: Market
Etymology

From Middle English market, from late Old English market and Anglo-Norman markiet (Old French marchié); both ultimately from Latin mercātus, from mercor ("I trade, deal in, buy"), itself derived from merx ("wares, merchandise").

Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /ˈmɑːkɪt/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈmɑɹkɪt/
  • (weak vowel) IPA: /ˈmɑɹkət/
Noun

market (plural markets)

  1. A gathering of people for the purchase and sale of merchandise at a set time, often periodic.
    The right to hold a weekly market was an invaluable privilege not given to all towns in the Middle Ages.
    • 1949, Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action:
      The market is a process, actuated by the interplay of the actions of the various individuals cooperating under the division of labor.
  2. City square or other fairly spacious site where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:
      ‘I understand that the district was considered a sort of sanctuary,’ the Chief was saying. ‘ […] They tell me there was a recognized swag market down here.’
  3. A grocery store
    Stop by the market on your way home and pick up some milk
  4. A group of potential customers for one's product.
    We believe that the market for the new widget is the older homeowner.
    • 1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC ↗:
      There is a third thing to be considered: how a market can be created for produce, or how production can be limited to the capacities of the market.
  5. A geographical area where a certain commercial demand exists.
    Foreign markets were lost as our currency rose versus their valuta.
  6. A formally organized, sometimes monopolistic, system of trading in specified goods or effects.
    The stock market ceased to be monopolized by the paper-shuffling national stock exchanges with the advent of Internet markets.
  7. The sum total traded in a process of individuals trading for certain commodities.
  8. (obsolete) The price for which a thing is sold in a market; hence, value; worth.
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iv]:
      What is a man / If his chief good and market of his time / Be but to sleep and feed?
Synonyms Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • French: du marché
  • German: Markt-
  • Portuguese: de mercado
  • Russian: ры́ночный
  • Spanish: del mercado
Verb

market (markets, present participle marketing; simple past and past participle marketed)

  1. (transitive) To make (products or services) available for sale and promote them.
    We plan to market an ecology model by next quarter.
  2. (transitive) To sell.
    We marketed more this quarter already than all last year!
  3. (intransitive) To deal in a market; to buy or sell; to make bargains for provisions or goods.
  4. (intransitive) To shop in a market; to attend a market.
Related terms Translations
Market
Etymology

Topographic surname for someone who lived by a market.

Proper noun
  1. Surname.



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