monopsony
Syllables: mon·op·so·ny/məˈnɒpsəni//məˈnɑpsəni/
monopsony noun: a market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product.
Noun
monopsony (plural monopsonies)
- A market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product.
- Our next task is to consider the change in the amount of a commodity purchased when the market changes from an indefinitely large number of competing buyers to a single buying agency. This may be described as the comparison between competitive and monopsony buying, just as the corresponding...1933, Joan Robinson, “Monopsony”, in The Economics of Imperfect Competition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited […], →OCLC, section 2, page 219
- It appears to follow that employment, far from falling, may be raised by an adroitly contrived legal minimum wage or collective agreement. Indeed, this proposition is an important one in the theory of both wage regulation and trade unionism. Its applicability is sometimes limited, however, even...1971, Martin Bronfenbrenner, “Imperfect Competition and Exploitation”, in Income Distribution Theory (Aldine Treatises in Modern Economics), Chicago, Ill.: Aldine-Atherton, →ISBN; republished...
- Antonyms:
- monopoly
- A buyer with disproportionate power.
- The result is different when the resource buyer is a monopsony. The monopsony firm is a single buyer, and therefore it faces the market supply curve.1978, Roger K. Chisholm, Marilu Hurt McCarty, Principles of Microeconomics, Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, →ISBN, page 344
- If the takeover is approved, Comcast would control 20 of the top 25 cable markets,[…]. Antitrust officials will need to consider Comcast’s status as a monopsony (a buyer with disproportionate power), when it comes to negotiations with programmers, whose channels it pays to carry.2014 March 15, “Turn it off: American regulators should block Comcast’s proposed deal with Time Warner Cable”, in The Economist, volume 410, number 8878, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2014
- Synonyms:
- monopsonist
monopsony meaning in Tamil, Indonesian and Persian
monopsony in Tamil
- நுகர்தல் முற்றுரிமை, வாங்குவோர் முற்றுரிமை, வாங்கல், விலைக்கு வாங்கல்
monopsony in Indonesian
- market situation in which there is only buyer for a product
- monopsoni
monopsony in Persian
- market situation in which there is only buyer for a product
- انحصار خرید
Examples of monopsony in a sentence
- This may be described as the comparison between competitive and monopsony buying, just as the corresponding comparison for selling was called the comparison between competitive and monopoly output.1933, Joan Robinson, “Monopsony”, in The Economics of Imperfect Competition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited […], →OCLC, section 2, page...
- For purposes of evaluating monopsony cases from the standpoint of economic efficiency, it makes sense to adopt a "purpose"-oriented classification system.2010, Roger D. Blair, Jeffrey L. Harrison, “The Antitrust Laws and Monopsonistic Forms of Conduct”, in Monopsony in Law and Economics...
- In a monopsony, the buyer has power over sellers instead of the other way around.2022, Rebecca Giblin, Cory Doctorow, Chokepoint Capitalism […] , Boston: Beacon Press, →ISBN:
- Network Rail is a monopsony (the sole buyer in a particular market) and must be careful not to exploit that position.2020 November 4, Christian Wolmar, “Hubble trouble: we need co-operation on innovation...”, in Rail, page 49:
Synonyms of monopsony
Antonyms
Forms of monopsony
| plural | monopsonies |
|---|
Origin of monopsony
From Ancient Greek μόνος (mónos, “alone, solitary; singular, unique”) + ὀψωνέω (opsōnéō, “to buy fish or victuals in general”) + -y, modelled after monopoly. ὀψωνέω is from ὄψον (ópson, “delicacies”) + ὠνέομαι (ōnéomai, “to buy, purchase”). The English word was coined by British classics scholar Bertrand Hallward (1901–2003), and popularized by British economist Joan Robinson (1903–1983) in her book The Economics of Imperfect Competition (1933): see the quotation.
Words formed from monopsony
Questions about monopsony
- What does monopsony mean?
- Monopsony means a market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product.
- What is monopsony in Tamil?
- Monopsony in Tamil is நுகர்தல் முற்றுரிமை, வாங்குவோர் முற்றுரிமை, வாங்கல். See Monopsony meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use monopsony in a sentence?
- This may be described as the comparison between competitive and monopsony buying, just as the corresponding comparison for selling was called the comparison between competitive and monopoly output.
- What part of speech is monopsony?
- Monopsony is a noun.
- How do you pronounce monopsony?
- Monopsony is pronounced /məˈnɒpsəni/ (UK).
- What is the plural of monopsony?
- The plural of monopsony is monopsonies.
Words near monopsony in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: monopsony (page history and authors); monopsony (Tamil 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-monopsony.wav, En-us-monopsony.ogg.
Cite this entry: “monopsony.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/monopsony. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.