noun · 2 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.
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:HH OW1 L S EY2 L ER0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A person or company that buys merchandise from manufacturers, importers, or distributors and resells the merchandise to retail businesses and to business and institutional end users.
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
someone who buys large quantities of goods and resells to merchants rather than to the ultimate customers
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: jobber, middleman
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: distributor, distributer
Narrower terms: meat packer, packer
History
Etymology
From wholesale + -er.
Across languages
Translations
32 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Arabic:
تَاجِر جُمْلَة
(tājir jumla)
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Catalan:
majorista
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Chinese Mandarin:
批發商 /批发商
(pīfāshāng)
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Czech:
velkoobchodník
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Danish:
grossist
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Dutch:
grossier
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Dutch:
groothandelaar
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Estonian:
hulgimüüja
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Finnish:
tukkukauppias
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
French:
grossiste
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
German:
Großhändler
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Greek:
χονδρέμπορος
(chondrémporos)
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Hindi:
थोक व्यापारी
(thok vyāpārī)
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Hungarian:
nagykereskedő
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Indonesian:
pedagang besar
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Indonesian:
grosir
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Irish:
mórdhíoltóir
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Japanese:
問屋
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Malay:
pemborong
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Māori:
kaihokorau
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Norwegian Bokmål:
grossist
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Norwegian Nynorsk:
grossist
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Polish:
hurtownik
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Polish:
hurtowniczka
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Portuguese:
atacadista
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Russian:
оптови́к
(optovík)
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Spanish:
mayorista
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Spanish:
comerciante mayorista
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Swedish:
grossist
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Swedish:
grosshandlare
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Swedish:
partihandlare
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
Turkish:
toptancı
— person or company that sells goods wholesale to retailers
