DictionaryAI

commercial

Saykuh-MUR-shuhl/kəˈmɝ.ʃəl/UK/kəˈmɜː.ʃəl/

Noun pluralcommercials

8 meanings of commercial

Practice

  1. 1
    tradeadjective
    Having to do with buying and selling goods or services.

    Like the part of town full of stores instead of houses.

    They opened a new commercial building downtown.

    The city set aside land for commercial use.

    Similarbusiness, mercantile, trading, retail

    Oppositenoncommercial, residential

    Note
  2. 2
    nouncountable
    A short ad on TV, on the radio or online, usually to sell something.

    Like a short sales message that plays between parts of a show.

    The game was interrupted by a loud commercial for soda.

    She muted the TV during every commercial.

    UsageSay a commercial for something. The pause for ads is a commercial break.

    Similaradvertisement, ad, advert, spot, promo

  3. 3
    paying passengersadjective
    Used about flying done for pay, such as planes and flights that carry paying passengers or goods, not military or private ones.

    Like a bus you buy a ticket for, but in the sky.

    She took her first commercial flight when she was ten.

    Bad weather delayed every commercial flight out of the city.

    Note
  4. 4
    adjective
    Made mainly to earn money by pleasing as many people as possible, often making it less good or less original.

    Some fans said the band's new songs were too commercial.

    Her first songs were quiet and strange, but her new album is very commercial.

    UsageOften a complaint: too commercial. But a commercial success just means it sold well.

    Similarmainstream

    Oppositeuncommercial

  5. 5
    ad-fundedadjective
    Used about TV or radio: paid for by ads, not by the government or by people who watch.

    Commercial TV channels stop the show every few minutes for ads.

    She got her first job reading the news at a commercial radio station.

    Oppositepublic, noncommercial

Less common meanings

  1. 6
    salesmannounobsolete
    A traveling salesman who goes from place to place selling a company's goods.
    I have more than once had to lend a commercial money to pay his fare home; as he had played shell-out and lost the lot.
    1875, George Worsley, Advice to the Young!Here, commercial means a traveling salesman.
    Five persons went to the house after the milkman was gone, and that there Arab party was safe inside, — three of them was commercials, that I know, because afterwards they came to me.
    1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle
    Note
  2. 7
    noun
    A trader who uses futures or options to reduce business risks rather than mainly betting on price changes.
  3. 8
    nounslang
    A man who sells sex for money.
    Tom said that homosexuals hate “commercials,” male prostitutes, and if the homosexual was drunk and angry, he might have committed murder.
    1972, Alfred Eustace Parker, The Berkeley Police Story

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of commercial apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

It came from French commercial, meaning "related to commerce." This goes back to Latin commercium.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts