industrial
Noun pluralindustrials (some meanings)
Pluralindustrials (some meanings)
- 1Of, relating to, produced by, used in, or working in industry, especially manufacturing.
The region's industrial output declined sharply during the recession.
Industrial unrest spread through the mining towns that winter.
UsageIndustrial action means a strike or similar protest by workers. Don't confuse it with industrious, meaning hard-working.
Similarmanufacturing
Note
It covers whatever touches industry as a whole: output, unrest, a segment of the economy. In The Economist's 2013 phrase about clearing forests "on an industrial scale," it is already edging toward the "massive" sense.
- 2Having many industries; industrialized.
By 1900, the region was heavily industrial, with mills lining every river.
Japan transformed itself into an industrial nation within a single generation.
Similardeveloped
Oppositeagricultural, agrarian, rural
Note
It describes whole societies and countries rather than single firms or goods, and it grades freely. A nation can be more industrial than its neighbor, heavily industrial, or part-industrial, part-rural. It also stretches to the people of such a society, as in The Economist's "modern, industrial man," set against his hunter-gatherer ancestors.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The Economist used "modern, industrial man" in a comparison with his hunter-gatherer ancestors. en.wiktionary.org
- 3Of a grade suited to heavy use in industry, as opposed to home or light use.
The gym installed industrial flooring that withstands dropped weights.
Their coffee machine is industrial, rated for hundreds of cups a day.
Similarheavy-duty, commercial
Oppositedomestic
- 4Relating to or in the style of industrial music, the genre built on harsh, abrasive, machine-like and often electronic sounds.
The band's industrial sound drew heavily on samples of factory machinery.
She hosts an industrial night at the club every Friday.
Note
Music borrowed the word for a genre whose name points back to the factory: noisy, experimental and given to transgressive themes. As an adjective it modifies sounds and scenes, as in industrial beats, an industrial sound or an industrial night at a club. The beats are typically called clashing or harsh. Used alone as a noun, it becomes the clipped genre name.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The musical genre adopted industrial as its name, through Industrial Records. en.wikipedia.org
- The genre name evokes factory production. en.wikipedia.org
- Industrial music is noisy and experimental, with transgressive themes. en.wiktionary.org
- 5A company that manufactures physical products or that supplies certain services to other industrial companies.
Analysts classify the conglomerate as an industrial because most of its revenue comes from manufacturing.
Several industrials in the region announced plant expansions this quarter.
Similarmanufacturer
Note
Business sorts companies into sectors, and an industrial is one whose main trade is making tangible goods or supplying manufacturers. Analysts use it as a classification label, traditionally set apart from financial, utility and transportation companies. It is countable (an industrial, several industrials), and the same plural names their shares in the finance sense.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Businesses classify companies into sectors. spglobal.com
- Industrials have traditionally been classified separately from financial, utility and transportation companies. burgundyasset.com
Less common meanings
- 6Ellipsis of industrial music.
The DJ shifted from techno into harsh industrial after midnight.
She grew up on industrial and still loves those noisy old records.
UsageUsed like jazz or classical, with no a: listen to industrial, grew up on industrial.
Note
A clipped genre name: drop music from industrial music and the modifier stands alone as a mass noun, much as classical and ambient do.
- 7Massive in scale or quantity.
She consumes paperback mysteries in industrial quantities.
The campaign produced yard signs on an industrial scale.
UsageMostly in set phrases: in industrial quantities, on an industrial scale.
Similarmassive, huge, enormous, vast
Note
Here the word turns into hyperbole: something done in industrial quantities or on an industrial scale is so large it seems factory-made. It can be wry, as with a reader of paperbacks or a maker of yard signs, or grave, as with fraud on an industrial scale; literal reports of production take the plain sense.
- 8A bond or stock issued by a company in the industrial sector.
The pension fund added a blue-chip industrial to its portfolio.
Industrials rallied after the strong manufacturing report.
Note
Investors name the security after the company: buying an industrial means buying a stock or bond issued by a firm in that sector. The plural is the everyday form, and it treats the whole class as having one market mood, as when industrials rally or slip. Context, not spelling, separates it from the company itself.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- An industrial can be a stock or bond issued by an industrial company. en.wiktionary.org
- 9Ellipsis of industrial piercing.
Her industrial runs diagonally across the top of her left ear.
The piercer warned that an industrial takes longer to heal than a lobe piercing.
Note
The same clipping happens in the piercing studio, where industrial piercing is shortened to its modifier, like the music noun. The full term carries a US label and names two holes, usually in the upper ear cartilage, joined by one straight piece of jewelry. Unlike the music noun, this one counts: an industrial, two industrials.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Industrial is an ellipsis of industrial piercing, paralleling the shortening of industrial music. en.wiktionary.org
- The full term industrial piercing carries a US label. en.wiktionary.org
- The piercing involves two holes, typically in the upper ear cartilage, connected by one straight piece of jewelry. infinitebody.com
- 10An employee in industry.
Note
An older noun: an industrial was simply someone employed in industry. It now reads as dated at best and obsolete at worst, so say industrial worker instead. The plural is the trap: a modern reader who meets industrials will think of companies or their shares, as in the business noun and the stock-market noun.
- 11A film made for use within an industry rather than for a general movie-going audience.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from French industriel; by surface analysis it can also be read as industry plus the suffix -al.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Industrial was borrowed from French industriel. en.wiktionary.org
- Industrial can be analysed as industry plus the suffix -al. en.wiktionary.org