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• black market
  black market

  noun

  the illicit buying and selling of goods in violation of legal price controls, rationing, etc.
• black-market
  black-market

  verb (used without object)

  to black-marketeer.

black market

¹ American  

noun

black markets plural

1. the illicit buying and selling of goods in violation of legal price controls, rationing, etc.

2. a place where such activity is carried on.

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black-market ² American  

[blak-mahr-kit] / ˈblækˈmɑr kɪt /

verb (used without object)

1. to black-marketeer.

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verb (used with object)

1. to sell (something) in the black market.

black market British  

noun

1. 1. any system in which goods or currencies are sold and bought illegally, esp in violation of controls or rationing

   2. ( as modifier )

      black market lamb

2. the place where such a system operates

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verb

1. to sell (goods) on the black market

black market Cultural  

1. The illegal buying and selling of goods above the price fixed by a government. Black markets usually develop when, because of war, disaster, or public policy, a government tries to set prices for commodities instead of allowing the normal operations of supply and demand to set prices.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• black marketeer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• black markets
  plural

Etymology

Origin of black market¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Origin of black-market²

First recorded in 1930–35; v. use of black market

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

black market black-market

She added that stakeholders had expressed concerns that more regulation could push problem gamblers onto the black market.

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2026

Whether it's leather that's pre-cut in China or stitching that's done in Vietnam, these materials and expertise are almost certainly channelled into the region's black market.

From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026

California’s Assembly Bill 1127 does not explicitly name the Glock brand, but instead targets any handgun with a specific mechanism that can easily be converted by a black market device.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

Crimea now has regular air-raid alerts, power outages and a gasoline black market with a going rate of as much as $25 a gallon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

On the way home, we swing by the Hob, the black market that operates in an abandoned warehouse that once held coal.

From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

Holocaust Memorial Museum describes the program as a coordinated effort to strip communities of cultural identity while redistributing art through state and black-market channels.

From Salon ● May 9, 2026

Rodriguez and her allies took control of PdVSA’s black-market oil sales and partnerships, according to Venezuelan analysts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026

Prices in Venezuela are set in dollars, but many people pay with the weak bolivar -- taking advantage of the difference between the official and black-market exchange rate to pay less in real dollar value.

From Barron's ● Jan. 22, 2026

But evidence in three London house-share hotspots we examined suggests that in some places there are more unlicensed, black-market HMOs than there are legal ones.

From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2025

And when the U.S. government asserts that terrorists raise money by selling black-market cigarettes, that acts as a rather jarring moral incentive.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt