Jump To:

• Dow Jones average
  Dow Jones average

  noun

  any of the indexes published by financial publishing firm Dow Jones and Company, especially any of those showing the average closing prices of the representative common stocks of 30 industrials, 20 transportation companies, or 15 utilities, or a composite of these.
• Dow-Jones average
  Dow-Jones average

  noun

  a daily index of stock-exchange prices based on the average price of a selected number of securities

Dow Jones average

American  

[dou johnz av-er-ij, av-rij] / ˈdaʊ ˈdʒoʊnz ˈæv ər ɪdʒ, ˈæv rɪdʒ /

noun

1. any of the indexes published by financial publishing firm Dow Jones and Company, especially any of those showing the average closing prices of the representative common stocks of 30 industrials, 20 transportation companies, or 15 utilities, or a composite of these.

---

Dow-Jones average British  

/ ˈdaʊˈdʒəʊnz /

noun

1. a daily index of stock-exchange prices based on the average price of a selected number of securities

---

Etymology

Origin of Dow-Jones average

C20: named after Charles H. Dow (died 1902) and Edward D. Jones (died 1920), American financial statisticians

Example Sentences

The Dow Jones average plunged more than 1,000 points during Monday’s trading session before recovering and finishing with a modest gain.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 25, 2022

The Dow Jones average has left past versions of the same in the dust.

From Salon • Sep. 30, 2018

The Dow Jones average fell 588 points Monday and shed over 200 more on Tuesday, after being up for most of the day.

From Washington Times • Aug. 25, 2015

Markets were little changed Friday, with the Dow Jones average up 0.2 percent at 11:30 a.m. and the Standard & Poor’s index almost precisely flat.

From Washington Post • Dec. 7, 2012

This is profitability even by modern Wall Street standards: if the Dow Jones average had risen a similar amount since World War II, the index would now stand at over twenty thousand.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro