emporium
Americannoun
-
emporiums,
plural
-
emporia
plural
-
a large retail store, especially one selling a great variety of articles.
- Synonyms:
- bazaar, marketplace, market
-
a place, town, or city of important commerce, especially a principal center of trade.
New York is one of the world's great emporiums.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of emporium
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
Explanation
An emporium is a large store that sells a variety of merchandise. You can call a department store, with its many different departments, an emporium. Any retail store that separates its goods into different areas — like "men's hats" and "kids' shoes" and "household goods" — can be called an emporium. Almost every small city in the United States used to have at least one emporium on its main street, although today you might refer to a big box store or a shopping mall as an emporium. Emporium is a Latin word, rooted in the Greek emporion, "trading place or market," from emporos, "merchant or traveler."
Vocabulary lists containing emporium
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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.
See Examples For:
He added that it will remain in the emporium until the end of September so the public can see it.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
As for the merchandise emporium, well … that’s where the credit card starts heating up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
“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.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2025
Have you ever wanted to put a little action on a game of skee-ball at an iconic arcade emporium with locations all over the country?
From Slate ● May 1, 2024
My half-sleeve collared shirt came from a thrift emporium at the border between Lake and Winter.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
As the name suggests, Center Market was the most centrally located of the capital’s various food emporia.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 18, 2020
The rise of contemporary and then streetwear brands reshaped consumer wardrobes and shopping patterns, as elitism was trounced by accessibility, and brick-and-mortar emporia went from being magnetic landmarks to millstones weighing down the bottom line.
From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2019
Avila Retail has nearly two dozen specialty stores based in airports, including its Earth Spirit folk-art emporia and the awkwardly named Indigenous, which peddles Native American crafts at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
From Slate ● Sep. 7, 2017
After cruising the shops and antiques emporia of Bethnal Green, we queue at the bagel shop in Brick Lane and buy five dozen for the freezer.
From Newsweek ● Apr. 12, 2015
On an afternoon this week he was seen with beaming face buying a travelling rug and two portable trunks at one of London's largest emporia.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 152, May 9, 1917 by Various
Once a fringe fixture of comic-book stores and hobby emporiums, a trading-card game has become a powerhouse in the toy industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
"People are hunting out bargains whether they're found in the sales aisles being well stocked by department stores, or in charity shops or other second-hand emporiums."
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2023
Next they tried a block of brightly lit jewelry emporiums, but a guard shooed them away.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2022
“I believe the fundamentals of the state need changing,” Faulconer said over black coffee at one of San Francisco’s designer java emporiums, citing the homelessness, crime and indecent housing costs that plague California.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2021
A thriving commercial center had taken root on the south side of the river, replete with stately brick hotels, sturdy limestone banks, and a wide variety of fine emporiums and reputable mercantile establishments.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
