aftermarket
Americannoun
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the market for replacement parts, accessories, and equipment for the care or enhancement of the original product, especially an automobile, after its sale to the consumer.
The company holds a large share in the automotive radio aftermarket.
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any additional market created by a product after the primary market.
Television is the perfect aftermarket for old movies.
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Stock Exchange. secondary market.
Usage
What does aftermarket mean? An aftermarket is a market for parts, accessories, or equipment used to maintain or improve an existing product, usually relating to machinery, especially automobiles.The aftermarket is a market for goods that can be used to repair, improve, or change a product that was already made on a primary, or standard, market. For example, when you buy a replacement power cable for your laptop from a company other than the computer manufacturer, you’re buying it on the aftermarket. Aftermarket is often paired with parts, as in The aftermarket parts for my car are actually of a better quality than the original parts.In the context of a stock exchange, aftermarket is used to mean a secondary market. The secondary market is the situation where investors buy and sell shares that are already owned. In contrast, the primary market is the situation where a company first sells its shares to investors. Before that, the company was owned privately. National markets like the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ are aftermarkets. Example: Because her new car didn’t come with good-quality speakers, Libby searched the aftermarket for better speakers.
Etymology
Origin of aftermarket
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.
The car repair and aftermarket parts industry has attracted significant private-equity investment in recent years.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 25, 2026
Commercial aftermarket revenue behaves in many ways like an annuity tied to flight hours, while defense modernization cycles add a second layer of durability.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 28, 2026
And Heico, which makes aftermarket parts, can use AI to reverse-engineer original parts and speed up the process of certifying them as equivalent to those from the original manufacturer.
From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026
“We knew they were aftermarket tickets,” Balentine said, “but never in a million years did I think that tickets could get canceled.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 29, 2026
The aftermarket DVD player had initially been a sore spot between her and Jim.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
