DictionaryAI

marketplace

noun
USMAR-kit-plays/ˈmɑɹkɪtˌpleɪs/MAH-kit-plays/ˈmɑːkɪtˌpleɪs/

Pluralmarketplaces

4 meanings of marketplace

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable
    The setting, whether physical or abstract, within which buyers and sellers carry out trade.

    Streaming services compete in a crowded marketplace for viewers' attention.

    A free marketplace lets buyers and sellers settle prices through supply and demand.

    Similararena

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    An open area in a town set aside for a public market where goods are bought and sold.

    Farmers set up their stalls in the marketplace every Saturday.

    The medieval marketplace stood at the very center of the old town.

    Similarsquare, bazaar, mart, piazza

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    The wider world of commerce and trade, considered as a whole.

    New technologies are reshaping the marketplace faster than ever before.

    The company struggled to stay profitable in a rapidly changing marketplace.

    Similareconomy, commerce

    Note

    Here the town square has widened into an abstraction. The word has stretched from the open market area to cover commerce as a whole. In economic argument it is often cast as an actor that judges goods through open competition, set against government intervention. Judith Rainhorn (2021) reports the liberal credo that the marketplace should act as the "site of verification." Expect it in debates about regulation and trade.

  4. 4
    nounfigurativelycountable
    Any arena in which ideas, fashions, or other things are traded and spread.

    Like a market stall, but what changes hands is opinions or styles rather than money.

    The university prides itself on being a vibrant marketplace of ideas.

    Fashion blogs act as a marketplace where new styles spread quickly.

    Similarforum, arena, exchange

    Note

    The figurative sense lives above all in one phrase, marketplace of ideas. It pictures public debate as open competition, with the stronger notion expected to prevail through free exchange. Al Gore, in The Assault on Reason (2007), hoped the Internet could become a new neutral marketplace of ideas. The image stretches to taste as well: a cultural marketplace is where styles and counterstyles circulate and compete.

Practice

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Origin

Formed from the combination of 'market' and 'place'.