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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

Last season, BBC Sport exposed the black market of top-flight tickets available for resale online, which circumvent UK laws against ticket touting by being based abroad.

From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026

But the black market continues to thrive and state regulation has proved toothless.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 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

To help some of them conceal their big feet—and their coming growth spurts—Woolf started up a black market in his shoes.

From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand

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

"Many migrants depend on black-market cylinders, and prices have gone up two to three times".

From Barron's ● Mar. 24, 2026

Nearly all of the country’s paltry output in recent years had ultimately flowed there in largely black-market purchases, at a steep discount to global prices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 24, 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