marketplace
Americannoun
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a place where a public market is held
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any centre where ideas, opinions, etc, are exchanged
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the commercial world of buying and selling
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of marketplace
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at market, place
Explanation
A marketplace is a location where people buy goods. When you travel to a new city, you should visit a marketplace to purchase souvenirs for your friends back home. Marketplace often describes an outdoor market where vendors sell produce, meat, crafts, and other goods. Depending where you are, a marketplace might be called a bazaar, a palengke, or a souk. A more general meaning is an economic system or market, or simply the everyday world where things get bought and sold. You should probably test your new lasagna-flavored ice cream in the marketplace to see if anyone will want to buy it!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Fuel is traded in an international marketplace, meaning disruptions to supply, production, or distribution anywhere in the world can have a direct effect on local wholesale costs."
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
Schick revolutionized shaving with injector razors and multiblades in a single cartridge, slugging it out in the marketplace for decades with rival shaving giant Gillette.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026
Such documents tend to serve as the last word on an artist’s creative output, and whatever gets included matters to posterity, and therefore the marketplace.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Co-sponsored by a mix of Republicans and Democrats, the bill could help preserve the conference-based rights marketplace on which ESPN’s college-sports business depends.
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026
How can I ever walk free in the world, after the clap of those hands in the marketplace that were plainly trying to send me away?
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Steve Garidis from the Bicycle Association said retailers have invested in developing safe and legal e-bikes but this can be "undermined by illegal and unsafe products often sold through online marketplaces to unsuspecting consumers".
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
Online marketplaces have proven to be an easy, cheap source of replacement parts, the Journal has reported.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
"In the marketplaces you basically only find pangolin scales, not the whole animals, which makes it hard to know which species are being hunted and where they are coming from," says Feijó.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
Many of those listed on online marketplaces are larger and more custom than Cash App’s Tags, making for an arguably more sensational payment experience.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
To Vranich, the capital’s lack of resemblance to European imperial cities extends well beyond the absence of marketplaces.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
