COMMERCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Commerce mean? 

• COMMERCE (noun)
  The noun COMMERCE has 3 senses:

1. transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services)

2. the United States federal department that promotes and administers domestic and foreign trade (including management of the census and the patent office); created in 1913

3. social exchange, especially of opinions, attitudes, etc.

  Familiarity information: COMMERCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMMERCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

commerce; commercialism; mercantilism

Hypernyms ("commerce" is a kind of...):

dealing; dealings; transaction (the act of transacting within or between groups (as carrying on commercial activities))

Meronyms (parts of "commerce"):

shipping; transport; transportation (the commercial enterprise of moving goods and materials)

Attribute:

noncommercial (not connected with or engaged in commercial enterprises)

commercial (connected with or engaged in or sponsored by or used in commerce or commercial enterprises)

Domain member category:

shop (do one's shopping)

buy in; stock; stock up (amass so as to keep for future use or sale or for a particular occasion or use)

market (deal in a market)

market (engage in the commercial promotion, sale, or distribution of)

barter away (trade in in a bartering transaction)

arbitrage (practice arbitrage, as in the stock market)

pick up (buy casually or spontaneously)

trust ((chiefly archaic) extend credit to)

broker (act as a broker)

turn over (do business worth a certain amount of money)

retail (sell on the retail market)

market (buy household supplies)

browse; shop (shop around; not necessarily buying)

comparison-shop (compare prices for a given item)

antique (shop for antiques)

smuggle (import or export without paying customs duties)

import (bring in from abroad)

export (sell or transfer abroad)

hock; pawn; soak (leave as a guarantee in return for money)

impulse-buy (buy on impulse without proper reflection)

franchise (grant a franchise to)

retail (be sold at the retail level)

trade (be traded at a certain price or under certain conditions)

merchandise; trade (engage in the trade of)

usance (the period of time permitted by commercial usage for the payment of a bill of exchange (especially a foreign bill of exchange))

commercialise; commercialize; market (make commercial)

buy; purchase (obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction)

take (buy, select)

get (purchase)

clear (sell)

turn (get by buying and selling)

negociate (sell or discount)

sell (exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent)

sell short (sell securities or commodities or foreign currency that is not actually owned by the seller, who hopes to cover (buy back) the sold items at a lower price and thus to earn a profit)

remainder (sell cheaply as remainders)

deaccession (sell (art works) from a collection, especially in order to raise money for the purchase of other art works)

traffic (trade or deal a commodity)

trade; trade in (turn in as payment or part payment for a purchase)

liquidize; sell out; sell up (sell or get rid of all one's merchandise)

wholesale (sell in large quantities)

deal (sell)

transact (conduct business)

deal; sell; trade (do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood)

auction; auction off; auctioneer (sell at an auction)

realise; realize (convert into cash; of goods and property)

fob off; foist off; palm off (sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceive)

resell (sell (something) again after having bought it)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "commerce"):

trading (buying or selling securities or commodities)

trade (the commercial exchange (buying and selling on domestic or international markets) of goods and services)

e-commerce (commerce conducted electronically (as on the internet))

exchange; interchange (reciprocal transfer of equivalent sums of money (especially the currencies of different countries))

initial offering; initial public offering; IPO (a corporation's first offer to sell stock to the public)

business; business enterprise; commercial enterprise (the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects)

carriage trade (trade from upper-class customers)

importation; importing (the commercial activity of buying and bringing in goods from a foreign country)

exportation; exporting (the commercial activity of selling and shipping goods to a foreign country)

marketing (the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service)

distribution (the commercial activity of transporting and selling goods from a producer to a consumer)

marketing; merchandising; selling (the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money)

traffic (buying and selling; especially illicit trade)

defrayal; defrayment; payment (the act of paying money)

evasion; nonpayment (the deliberate act of failing to pay money)

Derivation:

commercial (connected with or engaged in or sponsored by or used in commerce or commercial enterprises)

commercial (of the kind or quality used in commerce; average or inferior)

commercial (of or relating to commercialism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The United States federal department that promotes and administers domestic and foreign trade (including management of the census and the patent office); created in 1913

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

Commerce; Commerce Department; Department of Commerce; DoC

Hypernyms ("Commerce" is a kind of...):

executive department (a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United States)

Meronyms (parts of "Commerce"):

Bureau of the Census; Census Bureau (the bureau of the Commerce Department responsible for taking the census; provides demographic information and analyses about the population of the United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; NOAA (an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and other natural disasters related to weather)

Technology Administration (an agency in the Department of Commerce that works with United States industries to promote competitiveness and maximize the impact of technology on economic growth)

Patent and Trademark Office Database; Patent Office (the government bureau in the Department of Commerce that keeps a record of patents and trademarks and grants new ones)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Social exchange, especially of opinions, attitudes, etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("commerce" is a kind of...):

conversation (the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.)

 Context examples 

All written, printed, or graphic matter accompanying an article at any time while such article is in interstate commerce or held for sale after shipment or delivery in interstate commerce.

(Labeling, NCI Thesaurus)

The discipline concerned with the application of scientific knowledge to solve practical issues in commerce or industry.

(Engineering, NCI Thesaurus)

This officer spoke to me in the language of Balnibarbi, which, by the force of much commerce, is generally understood in that town, especially by seamen and those employed in the customs.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Life had always seemed a peculiarly sacred thing, but here it counted for nothing, was a cipher in the arithmetic of commerce.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He said little, but when he spoke I read in his kindling eye and in his animated glance a restrained but firm resolve not to be chained to the miserable details of commerce.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Any person who causes a label to be applied to a device with the intent that the device will be introduced into interstate commerce without any intended subsequent replacement or modification of the label; and any person who causes the label of a device to be modified with the intent that the device will be introduced into interstate commerce without any subsequent replacement or modification of the label, except that the addition of the name of, and contact information for, a person who distributes the device, without making any other changes to the label, is not a modification for the purposes of determining whether a person is a labeler.

(Device Labeler, Food and Drug Administration)

The EUA is a statutory authority allowing the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to authorize the introduction into interstate commerce and the use of unapproved medical products or authorize unapproved uses of approved medical products intended for use in an actual or potential emergency, during an emergency declared under Section 564(b)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act), as amended by the Project BioShield Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-276).

(Emergency Use Authorization, Food and Drug Administration)

It was one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of pedestrians.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Catherine was disturbed and out of spirits; but Isabella seemed to find a pool of commerce, in the fate of which she shared, by private partnership with Morland, a very good equivalent for the quiet and country air of an inn at Clifton.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It's on record, your position on interstate commerce regulation, on regulation of the railway trust and Standard Oil, on the conservation of the forests, on a thousand and one restrictive measures that are nothing else than socialistic.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)