emporium

[em-pawr-ee-uhm, -pohr-]

noun

plural

emporiums, emporia 

1. a large retail store, especially one selling a great variety of articles.

   Synonyms: bazaar, marketplace, market

2. a place, town, or city of important commerce, especially a principal center of trade.

   New York is one of the world's great emporiums.

emporium

/ ɛmˈpɔːrɪəm /

noun

1. a large and often ostentatious retail shop offering for sale a wide variety of merchandise

Word History and Origins

Origin of emporium¹

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin, from Greek empórion “market, emporium,” equivalent to émporos “merchant,” originally “traveler, passenger” ( em- em- ² + póros “passage, voyage”) + -ion noun suffix of place

Word History and Origins

Origin of emporium¹

C16: from Latin, from Greek emporion, from emporos merchant, from poros a journey

Example Sentences

“For whatever is grown and made among each people cannot fail to be here at all times and in abundance,” he wrote, “so that the city appears a kind of common emporium of the world.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

She began to lean into her carefully curated emporium as the vivacious backdrop it is.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Zoom in, and one will see there’s a large “emporium” to greet guests — and shoppers — on Main Street, U.S.A., as well as a castle-like moat to mark the entrance to Fantasyland.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Fleming connected the actor with Sangha, who law enforcement said operated a "drug selling emporium" out of her North Hollywood home.

Read more on Salon

Her North Hollywood home was a "drug-selling emporium", Martin Estrada, the US attorney for California's Central District, told a news conference on Thursday.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• bazaar 
• boutique 
• co-op 
• discount store 
• flea market 
• mall 
• mart 
• outlet 
• shop 
• shopping center 
• supermarket