commodity

American  

[kuh-mod-i-tee] / kəˈmɒd ɪ ti /

noun

plural

commodities

1. an article of trade or commerce, especially a product as distinguished from a service.

2. something of use, advantage, or value.

3. Stock Exchange. any unprocessed or partially processed good, as grain, fruits, and vegetables, or precious metals.

4. Obsolete. a quantity of goods.

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commodity British  

/ kəˈmɒdɪtɪ /

noun

1. an article of commerce

2. something of use, advantage, or profit

3. economics an exchangeable unit of economic wealth, esp a primary product or raw material

4. obsolete

   1. a quantity of goods

   2. convenience or expediency

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commodity Cultural  

1. Any product manufactured or grown.

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Other Word Forms

• noncommodity adjective

Etymology

Origin of commodity

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English commodite, from Anglo-French, from Latin commoditās “timeliness, convenience,” equivalent to commod(us) ( commode ) + -itās -ity

Example Sentences

Investing directly in oil and gas shares clearly involves taking on more stock-specific risk, and the returns may not be correlated exactly, or immediately, with the underlying commodity.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 9, 2026

The flip side was that bets on a wartime commodity shock got hammered, with a selloff ranging from international major oil companies like Exxon Mobil, Texas shale drillers such as Apache and natural-gas exporter Cheniere.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026

What’s more, the conflict also took Middle Eastern commodity chemical capacity offline.

From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026

The Iran war gave the commodity chemical business a much-needed boost.

From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026

Those sorts of earnings flashes are to the news business what vanilla is to the ice cream business—a basic commodity that actually can be made anywhere in the flat world.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

Related Words

• asset
• goods
• material
• produce
• product
• property
• stock