# market

Pronunciation: say "MAR-kit" US /ˈmɑɹkɪt/, UK /ˈmɑːkɪt/

## Noun

1. A place, or a gathering held there on regular days, where traders sell food and other goods from stalls to buyers.
   - Simple: A place where people set up stalls to sell food and other things, often on certain days each week.
   - _Vendors at the open-air market were arranging their produce before sunrise._
   - _The old covered market downtown has housed the same stalls for decades._
2. The people, or the country or region, that buy or might buy a particular product or service.
   - Simple: The people or places that buy, or might buy, a certain product.
   - _Streaming services compete for the same market of young urban viewers._
   - _Their market consists mainly of small business owners who need simple accounting tools._
4. An organized system, sometimes monopolistic, through which particular goods or assets are traded.
   - Simple: A system with rules where people buy and sell certain things, like stocks or oil.
   - _Trading on the commodities market was halted after prices swung wildly._
   - _The bond market reacted sharply to the central bank's announcement._
5. Commerce as a whole, understood as a mechanism that lets supply and demand rather than the state determine prices.
   - Simple: Trade as a whole, where prices come from what buyers want and sellers offer, not from the government.
   - _Economists argued that the market, not lawmakers, should set the price of electricity._
   - _Critics warn that leaving health care entirely to the market will price out poorer families._
6. The total volume of trade carried out in a particular commodity or product.
   - Simple: The total amount of buying and selling of a certain product.
   - _The global smartphone market shrank as buyers held onto older devices longer._
   - _Analysts estimate the market in rare earth metals at several billion dollars a year._
7. A shop that sells food and household groceries, from a supermarket to a corner convenience store.
   - Simple: A store where you can buy food and other everyday things.
   - _The little market on our block stays open until midnight, which is handy when we run out of milk or paper towels._
   - _The market on Fifth Street carries imported cheeses the big chains don't stock._
8. The price a thing fetches when sold; hence, its value or worth.
   - Simple: The price that something sells for, or what it is worth.
   - _She sold her shares at market rather than wait for a better price._
   - _He refused to sell below the current market, no matter how the buyer pressed._

## Verb

3. To offer a product or service for sale, especially by promoting it to the people who might buy it.
   - Simple: To sell something, or to try to make people want to buy it, for example by advertising it.
   - _The studio plans to market the film as a family comedy._
   - _Startups often market their apps through social media influencers._
9. To buy or sell at a market, especially to shop there for food and household supplies.
   - Simple: To go to a market to buy or sell things, especially food.
   - _Before there were supermarkets, she would go marketing at dawn, moving from stall to stall with a list in her apron pocket._
   - _On Saturdays the whole family went marketing together, haggling over fruit and coming home with far more than they needed._

## Origin

Latin merx ('wares, merchandise') gave mercor ('I trade, buy') and then mercātus ('trade, market'), the ultimate source of late Old English market and Anglo-Norman markiet (Old French marchié), which fed into Middle English market, perhaps with Old Saxon markat or Old Norse markaðr.

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