Word.ws English Dictionary

purchasing

purchasing is the present participle and gerund of purchase.

Noun

purchasing (countable and uncountable, plural purchasings)

  1. An act or process of making a purchase.
    • As our exports and imports are now nearly in balance, it is assumed that such bargaining, if agreed to, would induce the debtor nations to greatly increase their purchasings from us […]1936, James Arthur Fulton, Our economic nationalism: its purpose and importance, page 84
  2. A complex, organized process in large organizations for obtaining goods that may include identification of requirements, approvals, supplier management, negotiation, receipt of goods, and payment.
    Synonyms:
    procurement
  3. A part of an organization that manages such processes

Meaning of purchase

Verb

purchase (third-person singular simple present purchases, present participle purchasing, simple past and past participle purchased)

  1. To buy, obtain by payment of a price in money or its equivalent.
    • to purchase land, to purchase a house
    Synonyms:
    procure
  2. To pursue and obtain; to acquire by seeking; to gain, obtain, or acquire.
    • that loves the thing he cannot purchase1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “May. Ægloga Quinta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC
  3. To obtain by any outlay, as of labor, danger, or sacrifice, etc.
    • to purchase favor with flattery
  4. To expiate by a fine or forfeit.
    • Not tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  5. To apply to (anything) a device for obtaining a mechanical advantage; to get a purchase upon, or apply a purchase to; to raise or move by mechanical means.
    • to purchase a cannon
  6. To put forth effort to obtain anything; to strive; to exert oneself.
    • Duke John of Brabant purchased greatly that the Earl of Flanders should have his daughter in marriage.1523–1525, John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, Froissart's Chronicles

See all 18 meanings of purchase

Synonyms of purchasing

Forms of purchasing

pluralpurchasings

Words formed from purchasing

Phrases with purchasing

Questions about purchasing

What does purchasing mean?
Purchasing means an act or process of making a purchase.
What is purchasing the present participle and gerund of?
Purchasing is the present participle and gerund of purchase.
What part of speech is purchasing?
Purchasing is a noun.
What is the plural of purchasing?
The plural of purchasing is purchasings.

Words near purchasing in the dictionary

  1. purchasers
  2. purchasership
  3. purchases
  4. purchasest
  5. purchaseth
  6. purchasing
  7. purchasing agent
  8. purchasing agents
  9. purchasing power
  10. purchasing power parities
  11. purchasing power parity

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: purchasing (page history and authors); purchase (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: “purchasing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/purchasing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.