dealer

American  

[dee-ler] / ˈdi lər /

noun

1. a person who buys and sells articles without altering their condition; trader or merchant, especially a wholesaler.

   I got a dealer's discount on this coat.

2. Cards. the player distributing the cards.

3. a person who behaves or acts toward another or others in a specified manner.

   a plain dealer.

4. Slang. a person who buys and sells drugs illegally.

5. a person who buys securities for their own account and retains them until sold to another.

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dealer British  

/ ˈdiːlə /

noun

1. a person or firm engaged in commercial purchase and sale; trader

   a car dealer

2. cards the person who distributes the cards

3. slang a person who sells illegal drugs

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Other Word Forms

• dealership noun
• predealer noun
• subdealer noun

Etymology

Origin of dealer

First recorded before 1000; Middle English delere, Old English dǣlere. See deal ¹, -er ¹

Explanation

Anyone whose job (or hobby) involves buying and reselling something is a dealer. If you buy candy in bulk and sell it to your friends at a profit, you can call yourself a candy dealer. Sometimes this term implies that the goods being sold are illegal or illicit. It's even more commonly used to describe people who sell art, cars, or antiques. If you play poker with your friends and it's your turn to hand out the cards, you're also a dealer. This meaning, a player who passes out the cards in a game, dates from 1600.

Example Sentences

At an El Paso car dealer network, Casa Auto Group, salespeople said prospective buyers have started asking why they don’t offer something as inexpensive as the Chinese cars sold just miles away in Mexico.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026

We want to flip that around and sell the call, essentially acting like a dealer who is satisfying demand from aggressive, unmoored investors who think Intel will keep rising.

From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026

That’s approximately one dealer for every 8,150 residents of the South Bay city, which has a population of around 147,000 people.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026

Dr Ittai Gradel, the academic turned antiquities dealer who exposed the theft of many hundreds of artefacts from the British Museum, has died of cancer, aged 61.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026

I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

Related Words

• banker
• merchant
• retailer
• trader
• trafficker
• vendor
• wholesaler