commerce
/ˈkɒ.mɜːs//ˈkɑ.mɚs/
commerce noun: 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.
Noun
commerce (countable and uncountable, plural commerces)
- 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.
- Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.
- [A]ll libertine diſcourſe, and familiarities vvith vvomen, […] nay even friendſhip it ſelfe […] muſt be vvatched vvith great prudence to be kept ſafe: for vvhich cauſe in ſtead of all theſe perillous commerces of our love, I vvill preferre ſo ſecure an object to it, […]1648, Walter Montagu, “The Thirteenth Treatise. Handling whether to be in Love, and to be Devout, are Inconsistent. §. VIII. The Conclusion Framed upon All the Premised Discourse, and Our Love Safely...
- Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser.1911, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Bunyan, John”, in 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
- Sexual intercourse.
- carnal commerce
- An 18th-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.
Verb
commerce (third-person singular simple present commerces, present participle commercing, simple past and past participle commerced)
- To carry on trade; to traffic.
- [A]lwaies beware you commerce not with bankrupts, […]1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii...
- To hold conversation; to communicate.
- No, sir, he, / Vex'd with a morbid devil in his blood / That veil'd the world with jaundice, hid his face / From all men, and commercing with himself, / He lost the sense that handles daily life— […]1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Walking to the Mail”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 48
- Musicians […] taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven.1844, John Wilson, Essay on the Genius, and Character of Burns
Proper noun capitalized: Commerce
Commerce
commerce meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
commerce in Hindi
- large scale trade
- व्यापार vyāpār, वाणिज्य vāṇijya, व्यवसाय vyavsāy
commerce in Tamil
- வத்தகம், வர்த்தகம், பெருவணிகம், பெருவாணிபம், வணிகவியல், மாறுகொள்ளுகை
commerce in Urdu
- large scale trade
- تجارت tijārat, سودا saudā
commerce in Bengali
- large scale trade
- বাণিজ্য banijjo, তেজারত tejarot
More languagesFewer languages
- commerce in Malayalam
- വാണിജ്യം vāṇijyaṁ, വ്യാപാരം vyāpāraṁ
- commerce in Kannada
- ಕಾಳುಕೊಡೆ, ವಾಣಿಜ್ಯ, ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ, ಕೊಳುಕೊಡೆ
- commerce in Punjabi
- ਵਣਜ, ਕੰਮਰਸਿੰਗ
- commerce in Gujarati
- વાણિજ્ય vāṇijya
- commerce in Sanskrit
- वाणिज्य vāṇijya
- commerce in Pashto
- سوداګري sawdāgarí, تجارت teǰārát
- commerce in Tagalog
- kalakalan, pangangalakal
- commerce in Arabic
- تِجَارَة tijāra
- commerce in Malay
- perdagangan
- commerce in Indonesian
- perdagangan
- commerce in Persian
- تجارت tejârat, سودا sowdâ
- commerce in Thai
- พาณิชย์ paa-nít, ธุรกิจ tú-rá-gìt, การค้า gaan-káa
- commerce in Vietnamese
- sự buôn bán, thương mại, thương nghiệp
- commerce in Myanmar
- အရောင်းအဝယ် a.raung:a.wai, ဝါဏိဇ္ဇ wanijja., ကုန်သွယ်ရေး kunswaire:
Examples of commerce in a sentence
- Now that commerce is done electronically, tax stamps are no longer issued here.
- Many businesses are regulable because of the interstate commerce clause of the United States' Constitution.
- Before automobiles, railroads were a backbone of commerce.
Synonyms of commerce
Forms of commerce
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | commerces |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | commerces |
| present participle | commercing |
| past participle | commerced |
| past | commerced |
Origin of commerce
Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium. Doublet of comess.
Words formed from commerce
Phrases with commerce
Questions about commerce
- What does commerce mean?
- Commerce means 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.
- What is commerce in Hindi?
- Commerce in Hindi is व्यापार (vyāpār), वाणिज्य (vāṇijya), व्यवसाय (vyavsāy). See Commerce meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is commerce?
- Commerce can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce commerce?
- Commerce is pronounced /ˈkɒ.mɜːs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of commerce?
- The plural of commerce is commerces.
Words near commerce in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: commerce (page history and authors); Commerce (page history and authors); commerce (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); commerce (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); commerce (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); વાણિજ્ય (Gujarati) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-commerce.ogg, en-us-commerce.ogg.
Cite this entry: “commerce.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/commerce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.