Word.ws English Dictionary

emporium

Syllables: em·por·i·umUK/ɛmˈpɔːɹ.i.əm//ɛmˈpoɹ.i.əm/

emporium noun: a city or region which is a major trading centre; also, a place within a city for commerce and trading; a marketplace.

Noun

emporium (plural emporiums or emporia)

  1. (also, figuratively) A city or region which is a major trading centre; also, a place within a city for commerce and trading; a marketplace.
    • Venice a poore fiſhertowne, Paris, London, ſmall Cottages, in Cæſars time, now moſt noble Emporiums.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Against Poverty and Want, with Such Other Adversity”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and...
    • And, while this fam'd Emporium we prepare, / The Britiſh Ocean ſhall ſuch triumphs boaſt, / That thoſe who now diſdain our Trade to ſhare, / Shall rob like Pyrats on our wealthy Coaſt.1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, stanza 303, page 76
  2. (also, figuratively) A shop that offers a wide variety of goods for sale; a department store; (with a descriptive word) a shop specializing in particular goods.
    • With a name like “The Wine and Spirits Emporium”, no wonder the prices are so high.
    • Then, as if he wiſhed to convert himſelf into a vaſt emporium of every error, he applied to the doctrines of the modern Sophiſters, and thus plied his unfortunate brain on the one ſide with all the delirious conceits of Cabaliſtic Maſonry, and on the other with the impious doctrines of the...1799, [Augustin] Barruel, chapter III, in Robert Clifford, transl., Memoirs, Illustrating the History of Jacobinism. […], volume III, part III (The Antisocial Conspiracy), New York, N.Y.: […] Isaac...
  3. (historical) A business set up to enable foreign traders to engage in commerce in a country; a factory (now the more common term).
    • The advantages to be enjoyed, and laws conformed to by the men of war of either ſtate, the trade to be carried on in America, the catching of herrings or other fiſh, the ſettling of emporiums, &c. ſhall be adjuſted by a ſpecial treaty.1654 April 20, Charles Jenkinson, “Treaty of Peace between Oliver Cromwell Protector of the Common-wealth of England, and Christina Queen of Sweden, Concluded at Upsal, April 11th, 1654 [Julian...
    • On the ſouthern branch is a town called Pipely, where there was formerly an Engliſh factory; but this was removed to Huguley, one hundred and ſixty miles farther up the river; a place which, together with the company's ſettlement at Calcutta, were the emporiums of their commerce for the whole...1760, T[obias] Smollett, “George II”, in Continuation of the Complete History of England, volume I, London: […] Richard Baldwin, […], →OCLC, page 204
  4. (broadly, obsolete) The brain.
    • Catalepſy is occaſioned by a Relaxation of the Fibers of the Emporium, which cannot receive the outward Impreſſions, whereby the Soul has its Senſations, and yet give a free Paſſage to the Animal Spirits into all the Parts, whither they may be conveyed independently upon the Will. The Relaxation of...1722, [Antoine] Deidier, “Article XL. An Account of an Extraordinary Disease, Inscribed to Dr. Deidier, Regius Professor of Physick at Montpellier; with His Thoughts upon that Disease.”, in [Michel...
    • Observing, then that the emporium or brain itself reflects the entire product of all the senses by an impressible power, which, as by a looking-glass, exactly duplicated the external recognizers, or sense apparatus or limbs, it was inferred that the principle of duplication must be the true and...1877, Richard Fawcett Battye, “Upon Animal Morphology and Differentiation”, in What is Vital Force?: Or, A Short and Comprehensive Sketch, including, Vital Physics, Animal Morphology, and Epidemics...

Proper noun capitalized: Emporium

Emporium

  1. A borough, the county seat of Cameron County, Pennsylvania, United States.

emporium meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Tagalog

emporium in Tamil

பேரங்காடி

emporium in Malayalam

store, shop, outlet
എമ്പോറിയം, കട, പീടിക, ശാല, വർത്തകശാല, ചില്ലറവ്യാപാരം

emporium in Kannada

ಸಂತೆ, ದೊಡ್ಡಂಗಡಿ

emporium in Tagalog

place within a city for commerce and trading — see also marketplace
emporyo
shop that offers a wide variety of goods for sale
emporyo

Examples of emporium in a sentence

  • Excester, or EXETER, is a famous and ancient City, the metropolis and emporium of the Weſt of England.1789, “Bridport”, in A Diary of the Royal Tour, in June, July, August, and September, 1789. […], London: […] J. Southern, […], and...
  • Ning-po, which is situated a short distance westward of Chusan, is the principal emporium of Che-keang province.1834, Charles Gutzlaff, Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of China, in 1831, 1832, & 1833, with Notices of Siam, Corea, and the...
  • That's all I claim for Boston,—that it is the thinking centre of the continent, and therefore of the planet. / ―And the grand emporium of modesty,—said the divinity student, a little mischievously.1859 April, [Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.], “The Professor at the Breakfast-table. What He Said, What He Heard, and What He Saw.”, in The...
  • Although Hong Kong was not yet a great mercantile mart, it was the major opium emporium east of the Cape of Good Hope.1997, Bob Dye, “Kit-Fat Wife”, in Merchant Prince of the Sandalwood Mountains: Afong and the Chinese in Hawai‘i (A Latitude 20 Book)...

Forms of emporium

pluralemporiums
pluralemporia

Plural of emporium: emporiums or emporia

Origin of emporium

Borrowed from Latin emporium (“trading station; business district in a city; market town”), from Ancient Greek ἐμπόριον (empórion, “factory, trading station; market”), from ἔμπορος (émporos, “merchant, trader; traveller”) + -ιον (-ion, suffix forming nouns). ἔμπορος is derived from ἐμ- (em-) (variant of ἐν- (en-, prefix meaning ‘in; within’)) + πόρος (póros, “journey; passageway”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through; to carry forth”)), modelled after ἐν πόρῳ (en pórōi, “at sea; en route”). Sense 4 (“the brain”) alludes to the organ as the place where many nerves or nerve impulses meet. Not related to English empire.

Words formed from emporium

Questions about emporium

What does emporium mean?
Emporium means a city or region which is a major trading centre; also, a place within a city for commerce and trading; a marketplace.
What is emporium in Tamil?
Emporium in Tamil is பேரங்காடி. See Emporium meaning in Tamil.
How do you use emporium in a sentence?
Excester, or EXETER, is a famous and ancient City, the metropolis and emporium of the Weſt of England.
What part of speech is emporium?
Emporium can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce emporium?
Emporium is pronounced /ɛmˈpɔːɹ.i.əm/ (UK).
What is the plural of emporium?
The plural of emporium is emporiums.

Words near emporium in the dictionary

  1. emporetic
  2. emporeutic
  3. emporia
  4. emporial
  5. empories
  6. emporium
  7. emporiums
  8. emporographics
  9. empory
  10. empose
  11. empousa

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: emporium (page history and authors); Emporium (page history and authors); emporium (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); emporium (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); emporium (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-emporium.mp3.

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