Word.ws English Dictionary

cartels

cartels is the plural of cartel.

Meaning of cartel

Noun

cartel (plural cartels)

  1. A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
    • oil cartel
  2. (historical) A combination of political groups (notably parties) for common action.
  3. (historical) A written letter of defiance or challenge.
    • He is cowed at the very idea of a cartel.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co....
  4. (historical) An official agreement concerning the exchange of prisoners.
    • He then sent down a flag of truce in military style, proposing a cartel or exchange of prisoners – the corporal for the notary.1832, Tales of the Alhambra, Washington Irving
  5. (historical) A ship used to negotiate with an enemy in time of war, and to exchange prisoners.

Phrases with cartels

Questions about cartels

What is cartels the plural of?
Cartels is the plural of cartel.

Words near cartels in the dictionary

  1. cartellisation
  2. cartellisations
  3. cartellization
  4. cartellizations
  5. cartells
  6. cartels
  7. carteolol
  8. carter
  9. Carter Bar
  10. Carter catastrophe
  11. Carter County

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cartels (page history and authors); cartel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “cartels.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cartels. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.