oligopoly
Syllables: oli·go·po·ly/ɒlɪˈɡɒpəli/US/ˌɑləˈɡɑpəli/
oligopoly noun: an economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.
Noun
oligopoly (countable and uncountable, plural oligopolies)
- An economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.
- Because of the ease of collusion, particularly price fixing, duopolies and oligopolies easily produce outcomes as bad for the general public as outright monopolies.
- For the sheep are falling into few and powerful hands; and these, if they have not a monopoly, have at least an oligopoly, and can keep up the price.1866 October 1, Frederic Seebohm, “The Oxford Reformers of 1498. Chapter VII.”, in George Henry Lewes, editor, The Fortnightly Review, volume VI, number XXXIV, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC...
oligopoly meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Pashto
oligopoly in Tamil
- சிலர் சர்வாதீனம், சிலர் முற்றுரிமை, சிலர் ஆதிக்கம்
oligopoly in Malayalam
- economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity
- ഒലിഗോപൊളി oligōpoḷi
oligopoly in Kannada
- economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity
- ಅಲ್ಪಸಂಖ್ಯಾಸಾಮ್ಯ alpasaṅkhyāsāmya
oligopoly in Pashto
- economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity
- څوگونی انحصار
More languagesFewer languages
- oligopoly in Tagalog
- oligopolyo
- oligopoly in Arabic
- احتكار القلة
- oligopoly in Malay
- oligopoli
- oligopoly in Indonesian
- oligopoli
- oligopoly in Persian
- انحصار چندتایی
Examples of oligopoly in a sentence
- We have ‘monopoly,’ but not ‘oligopoly’ (the sale by a few), and so cannot preserve the point of the sentence.[1895, J[oseph] H[irst] Lupton, “The Fyrste Boke of the Communycacion of Raphaell Hythlodaye Concernynge the Best State of a...
- The major difference between pure and differentiated oligopoly cases is that in pure oligopolies less "shock" is needed to alter the organization of the market.1967, John C. Narver, “The Competitive Effects of Conglomerate Mergers”, in Conglomerate Mergers and Market Competition (Publications of...
- Although the power source had shifted from the king's near monopoly into an elite oligopoly, the masses were still afflicted when they sought wood fuel.2006 September, Edwin Black, “Power Struggle”, in Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and...
Forms of oligopoly
| plural | oligopolies |
|---|
Origin of oligopoly
PIE word *h₃ligos From oligo- (prefix meaning ‘few; several’) + -poly (suffix meaning ‘pertaining to the number of sellers in a market’), by analogy with monopoly.
Words formed from oligopoly
Words that rhyme with oligopoly
Questions about oligopoly
- What does oligopoly mean?
- Oligopoly means an economic condition in which a small number of sellers exert control over the market of a commodity.
- What is oligopoly in Tamil?
- Oligopoly in Tamil is சிலர் சர்வாதீனம், சிலர் முற்றுரிமை, சிலர் ஆதிக்கம். See Oligopoly meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use oligopoly in a sentence?
- We have ‘monopoly,’ but not ‘oligopoly’ (the sale by a few), and so cannot preserve the point of the sentence.
- What part of speech is oligopoly?
- Oligopoly is a noun.
- How do you pronounce oligopoly?
- Oligopoly is pronounced /ɒlɪˈɡɒpəli/ (UK).
- What is the plural of oligopoly?
- The plural of oligopoly is oligopolies.
Words near oligopoly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: oligopoly (page history and authors); oligopoly (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-oligopoly.wav.
Cite this entry: “oligopoly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oligopoly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.