Standard Lemma guide

commerce

name · noun · verb · 10 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈkɒm.əs/
  • General-American, dialectal: /ˈkɑ.mɚs/ of Canada
  • Canada, dialectal: /ˈkɒm.ɚs/ of the US
  • Australian: /ˈkɔm.əs/
  • New-Zealand: /ˈkɒm.əs/
  • New-Zealand: [kɔ̟m.əs]
  • rhymes with (Received Pronunciation) -ɒməs
  • rhymes with (Received Pronunciation, dated) -ɜːs
  • Received-Pronunciation, dated: /kəˈmɜːs/
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American, dialectal, dated: /kəˈmɝs/ of Canada
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: K AA1 M ER0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

name

Meaning 1

A city in Los Angeles County, California, United States.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; especially the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: business

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

Sexual intercourse.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, obsolete, uncountable

Examples

  • carnal commerce

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: card-games, games

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To carry on trade; to traffic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

verb

Meaning 7

To hold conversation; to communicate.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: commercialism, mercantilism

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: transaction, dealing, dealings

Narrower terms: trading, trade, e-commerce, exchange, interchange, initial public offering, IPO, initial offering, commercial enterprise, business enterprise, business, carriage trade, importing, importation, exporting, exportation, marketing, distribution, selling, merchandising, traffic, payment, defrayal, defrayment, evasion, nonpayment

9

noun

Meaning 9

social exchange, especially of opinions, attitudes, etc.

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: conversation

10

noun

Meaning 10

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

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Department of Commerce, Commerce Department, DoC

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: executive department

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium. Doublet of comess.

Across languages

Translations

147 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: handel — large scale trade
  • Afrikaans: ruil — large scale trade
  • Albanian: tregti — large scale trade
  • Amharic: ንግድ (nəgd) — large scale trade
  • Arabic: تِجَارَة (tijāra) — large scale trade
  • Armenian: առեւտուր (aṙewtur) — large scale trade
  • Asturian: comerciu — large scale trade
  • Azerbaijani: alver — large scale trade
  • Azerbaijani: ticarət — large scale trade
  • Bangi: mombongo — large scale trade
  • Bashkir: сауҙа (sawźa) — large scale trade
  • Bashkir: коммерция (kommertsiya) — large scale trade
  • Belarusian: га́ндаль (hándalʹ) — large scale trade
  • Belarusian: каме́рцыя (kamjércyja) — large scale trade
  • Belarusian: тарго́ўля (tarhówlja) — large scale trade
  • Bengali: বাণিজ্য (banijjo) — large scale trade
  • Bengali: তেজারত (tejarot) — large scale trade
  • Bulgarian: търго́вия (tǎrgóvija) — large scale trade
  • Burmese: အရောင်းအဝယ် (a.raung:a.wai) — large scale trade
  • Burmese: ဝါဏိဇ္ဇ (wanijja.) — large scale trade
  • Burmese: ကုန်သွယ်ရေး (kunswaire:) — large scale trade
  • Catalan: comerç — large scale trade
  • Chinese Mandarin: 貿易 /贸易 (màoyì) — large scale trade
  • Chinese Mandarin: 交易 (jiāoyì) — large scale trade
  • Chinese Mandarin: 商業 /商业 (shāngyè) — large scale trade
  • Czech: obchod — large scale trade
  • Danish: handel — large scale trade
  • Dutch: handel — large scale trade
  • Dutch: commercie — large scale trade
  • Esperanto: komerco — large scale trade
  • Estonian: kaubandus — large scale trade
  • Finnish: kauppa — large scale trade
  • Finnish: kaupankäynti — large scale trade
  • French: commerce — large scale trade
  • Friulian: cumierç — large scale trade
  • Galician: comercio — large scale trade
  • Georgian: კომერცია (ḳomercia) — large scale trade
  • Georgian: ვაჭრობა (vač̣roba) — large scale trade
  • German: Handel — large scale trade
  • German: Kommerz — large scale trade
  • Greek: εμπόριο (empório) — large scale trade
  • Ancient Greek: ἐμπορία (emporía) — large scale trade
  • Greenlandic: niuerneq — large scale trade
  • Hebrew: סַחַר (sakhar) — large scale trade
  • Hebrew: מִסְחָר (miskhar) — large scale trade
  • Hindi: व्यापार (vyāpār) — large scale trade
  • Hindi: वाणिज्य (vāṇijya) — large scale trade
  • Hindi: व्यवसाय (vyavsāy) — large scale trade
  • Hungarian: kereskedelem — large scale trade
  • Icelandic: verslun — large scale trade
  • Indonesian: perdagangan — large scale trade
  • Irish: tráchtáil — large scale trade
  • Italian: commercio — large scale trade
  • Japanese: 貿易 (bōeki) — large scale trade
  • Japanese: 交易 (kōeki) — large scale trade
  • Japanese: 商業 (shōgyō) — large scale trade
  • Kazakh: коммерция (kommersiä) — large scale trade
  • Kazakh: сауда (sauda) — large scale trade
  • Khmer: ពាណិជ្ជកម្ម (piəniccĕəʼkam) — large scale trade
  • Khmer: វណិជ្ជា (vĕəʼnɨcciə) — large scale trade
  • Khmer: ពាណិជ្ជ (piənɨc) — large scale trade
  • Korean: 무역 (muyeok) — large scale trade
  • Korean: 교역 (gyoyeok) — large scale trade
  • Korean: 상업 (sang'eop) — large scale trade
  • Northern Kurdish: sewda — large scale trade
  • Kyrgyz: соода (sooda) — large scale trade
  • Kyrgyz: коммерция (kommertsiya) — large scale trade
  • Lao: ການຄ້າ (kān khā) — large scale trade
  • Lao: ທຸລະກິດ (thu la kit) — large scale trade
  • Lao: ວານິດ (wā nit) — large scale trade
  • Latin: commercium — large scale trade
  • Latvian: komercija — large scale trade
  • Latvian: tirdzniecība — large scale trade
  • Lingala: mombongo — large scale trade
  • Lithuanian: komercija — large scale trade
  • Lithuanian: prekyba — large scale trade
  • Macedonian: трговија (trgovija) — large scale trade
  • Macedonian: комерција (komercija) — large scale trade
  • Malay: perdagangan — large scale trade
  • Malayalam: വാണിജ്യം (vāṇijyaṁ) — large scale trade
  • Malayalam: വ്യാപാരം (vyāpāraṁ) — large scale trade
  • Maltese: kummerċ — large scale trade
  • Manx: cochionneeaght — large scale trade
  • Māori: tauhokohoko — large scale trade
  • Mongolian: худалдаа (xudaldaa) — large scale trade
  • Norwegian Bokmål: handel — large scale trade
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: handel — large scale trade
  • Pali: vaṇijjā — large scale trade
  • Pashto: سوداګري (sawdāgarí) — large scale trade
  • Pashto: تجارت (teǰārát) — large scale trade
  • Persian: تجارت (tejârat) — large scale trade
  • Persian: سودا (sowdâ) — large scale trade
  • Polish: handel — large scale trade
  • Portuguese: comércio — large scale trade
  • Romanian: comerț — large scale trade
  • Russian: торго́вля (torgóvlja) — large scale trade
  • Russian: комме́рция (kommércija) — large scale trade
  • Sanskrit: वाणिज्य (vāṇijya) — large scale trade
  • Serbo-Croatian: трго̀вина — large scale trade
  • Serbo-Croatian: trgòvina — large scale trade
  • Sicilian: cummerciu — large scale trade
  • Sikkimese: ཁེ་ཚོང (khe tshong) — large scale trade
  • Slovak: obchod — large scale trade
  • Slovene: trgovina — large scale trade
  • Spanish: comercio — large scale trade
  • Swahili: biashara — large scale trade
  • Swedish: handel — large scale trade
  • Tagalog: kalakalan — large scale trade
  • Tagalog: pangangalakal — large scale trade
  • Tajik: тиҷорат (tijorat) — large scale trade
  • Tajik: савдо (savdo) — large scale trade
  • Tatar: сәүдә (säwdä) — large scale trade
  • Thai: พาณิชย์ (paa-nít) — large scale trade
  • Thai: ธุรกิจ (tú-rá-gìt) — large scale trade
  • Thai: การค้า (gaan-káa) — large scale trade
  • Tocharian B: karyor — large scale trade
  • Turkish: ticaret — large scale trade
  • Ottoman Turkish: تجارت (ticâret) — large scale trade
  • Turkmen: söwda — large scale trade
  • Ukrainian: торгі́вля (torhívlja) — large scale trade
  • Ukrainian: коме́рція (komércija) — large scale trade
  • Urdu: تجارت (tijārat) — large scale trade
  • Urdu: سودا (saudā) — large scale trade
  • Uyghur: تىجارەت (tijaret) — large scale trade
  • Uyghur: سودا (soda) — large scale trade
  • Uzbek: tijorat — large scale trade
  • Uzbek: kommersiya — large scale trade
  • Uzbek: savdo — large scale trade
  • Vietnamese: sự buôn bán — large scale trade
  • Vietnamese: thương mại — large scale trade
  • Vietnamese: thương nghiệp — large scale trade
  • Yiddish: האַנדל (handl) — large scale trade
  • Bulgarian: общу́ване (obštúvane) — social interaction
  • Catalan: comerç — social interaction
  • Finnish: vuorovaikutus — social interaction
  • Finnish: sosiaalinen kanssakäyminen — social interaction
  • Georgian: ურთიერთობა (urtiertoba) — social interaction
  • Hungarian: érintkezés — social interaction
  • Russian: обще́ние (obščénije) — social interaction
  • Bulgarian: сноше́ние (snošénie) — coitus
  • Finnish: yhdyntä — coitus
  • Finnish: seksuaalinen kanssakäyminen — coitus
  • French: rapports — coitus
  • Russian: сноше́ние (snošénije) — coitus
  • Bulgarian: надда́ване (naddávane) — term in cards
  • Catalan: comerç — term in cards
  • Finnish: commerce — term in cards
Real reading context

commerce in complete knowledge articles