- plural of sale.
sales
Americannoun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of sales
First recorded in 1820–30, for the adjective
Explanation
When a company’s sales are down, it hasn’t been making money. The word sales refers to income. If a bathing suit company’s sales are low, it should stop making wool bikinis. Sales is also the plural of “sale.” If a jewelry maker is worried about sales during the year's slow months, he might offer a discount. And when a big company focuses too much on sales, they sometimes lose track of the other aspects of doing business. Stores have big sales. The job or activity of selling things is also known as sales, so you could have a sales job, or even a title like "Director of Sales" or "sales representative."
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.
"Sales have tripled over the past year," Mooring told AFP, noting that a major supermarket chain agreeing to carry the products had fueled the growth.
From Barron's • Jul. 2, 2026
Sales from GM were down 4.2% for the quarter, a performance that it said “reflected the smaller EV market,” as well as inventory constraints and discontinued vehicles.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 2, 2026
Sales of Ford's top-selling F-150 pickup truck were 197,900, a drop of 11 percent.
From Barron's • Jul. 2, 2026
Sales in June—which mark the first month of its third quarter—are expected to have been flat in local currencies compared to a year earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026
The Sales were a complete contrast to the hushed atmosphere of the Exchanges.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
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.
