# commercial

Pronunciation: say "kuh-MUR-shuhl" US /kəˈmɝ.ʃəl/, UK /kəˈmɜː.ʃəl/

## Adjective

1. Relating to commerce: the buying and selling of goods and services.
   - Simple: Having to do with buying and selling goods or services.
   - _The downtown district is zoned for commercial activity._
   - _Their commercial interests extended across several countries._
3. Of aviation: done for pay or hire, especially carrying paying passengers or cargo, rather than for military or private purposes; used of flights, aircraft, airports and pilots.
   - Simple: Used about flying done for pay, such as planes and flights that carry paying passengers or goods, not military or private ones.
   - _Commercial flights resumed once the runway reopened._
   - _He logged thousands of hours piloting commercial aircraft._
4. Produced mainly for profit and to please the widest possible audience, often at the expense of quality or originality.
   - Simple: Made mainly to earn money by pleasing as many people as possible, often making it less good or less original.
   - _Critics dismissed her third novel as a slick, commercial product written for airport bookstores._
   - _The director turned down the sequel, saying the project had become too commercial._
5. Of television or radio: funded mainly by selling airtime to advertisers rather than by the government or by fees from viewers.
   - Simple: Used about TV or radio: paid for by ads, not by the government or by people who watch.
   - _Unlike public broadcasters, commercial stations depend on advertisers to stay on the air._
   - _The documentary was turned down by every commercial network because it would be hard to sell ads around it._

## Noun

2. An advertisement broadcast on radio or television or another common media format.
   - Simple: A short ad on TV, on the radio or online, usually to sell something.
   - _The company spent millions on a thirty-second commercial during the championship final._
   - _Streaming services often insert commercials between episodes now._

## Noun

6. A traveling salesman who journeys from town to town representing a business and taking orders. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A traveling salesman who goes from place to place selling a company's goods.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A trader who uses futures or options to hedge business risks, rather than primarily to speculate on price movements.
- (noun) A man who engages in prostitution; a male sex worker.

## Origin

Latin commercium gave Late Latin commercialis, and French made it commercial ("of or pertaining to commerce"), which English took over. Taken apart, it is commerce plus the suffix -ial.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/commercial (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).