franchise

American  

[fran-chahyz] / ˈfræn tʃaɪz /

noun

• franchises
  plural

1. a privilege of a public nature conferred on an individual, group, or company by a government.

   a franchise to operate a bus system.

2. the right or license granted by a company to an individual or group to market its products or services in a specific territory.

3. a store, restaurant, or other business operating under such a license.

4. the territory over which such a license extends.

5. the right to vote.

   to guarantee the franchise of every citizen.

6. a privilege arising from the grant of a sovereign or government, or from prescription, which presupposes a grant.

7. Sports.

   1. the right to own or operate a professional sports team as a member of a league.

   2. a professional sports team.

   3. a player of great talent or popular appeal, considered vitally important to a team's success or future.

8. a set of creative works and related merchandise that share a fictional world, as films, television shows, books, or games.

   the Star Wars franchise;

   the Pokémon franchise.

9. a legal immunity or exemption from a particular burden, exaction, or the like.

10. Obsolete. freedom, especially from imprisonment, servitude, or moral restraint.

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verb (used with object)

• franchises,
  present (3rd person singular)
• franchised,
  past participle,  past
• franchising
  present participle

1. to grant (an individual, company, etc.) a franchise.

   The corporation has just franchised our local dealer.

2. enfranchise.

franchise British  

/ ˈfræntʃaɪz /

noun

1. the right to vote, esp for representatives in a legislative body; suffrage

2. any exemption, privilege, or right granted to an individual or group by a public authority, such as the right to use public property for a business

3. commerce authorization granted by a manufacturing enterprise to a distributor to market the manufacturer's products

4. the full rights of citizenship

5. films a film that is or has the potential to be part of a series and lends itself to merchandising

6. (in marine insurance) a sum or percentage stated in a policy, below which the insurer disclaims all liability

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verb

1. (tr) commerce to grant (a person, firm, etc) a franchise

2. an obsolete word for enfranchise

franchise ¹ Cultural  

1. In business, a relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer in which the manufacturer provides the product, sales techniques, and other kinds of managerial assistance, and the retailer promises to market the manufacturer's product rather than that of competitors. For example, most automobile dealerships are franchises. The vast majority of fast food chains are also run on the franchise principle, with the retailer paying to use the brand name.

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franchise ² Cultural  

1. In politics, the right to vote. The Constitution left the determination of the qualifications of voters to the states. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, states usually restricted the franchise to white men who owned specified amounts of property. Gradually, poll taxes were substituted for property requirements. Before the Civil War, the voting rights of blacks were severely restricted, but the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, declared ratified in 1870, prohibited states from abridging the right to vote on the basis of race. Nevertheless, southern states used a variety of legal ploys to restrict black voting until passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Women were not guaranteed the right to vote in federal elections until ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. In 1971 the Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. (See suffrage and suffragette.)

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Discover More

Losing the right to vote, called disfranchisement, is most commonly caused by failing to reregister, a procedure that is required every time a person changes residence.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• franchisability
  noun
• franchisee
  noun
• franchisement
  noun
• franchiser
  noun
• subfranchise
  noun
• franchisable
  adjective
• overfranchised
  adjective
• unfranchised
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• franchises
  plural

Participles

• franchising
  present
• franchised
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• franchise
  simple
• franchises
  simple
• have franchised
  perfect
• has franchised
  perfect
• am franchising
  progressive
• are franchising
  progressive
• is franchising
  progressive
• have been franchising
  perfect progressive
• has been franchising
  perfect progressive

Past

• franchised
  simple
• had franchised
  perfect
• was franchising
  progressive
• were franchising
  progressive
• had been franchising
  perfect progressive

Future

• will franchise
  simple
• will have franchised
  perfect
• will be franchising
  progressive
• will have been franchising
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of franchise

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Old French, derivative of franc “free”; see frank ¹

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Explanation

A franchise is a right granted by a government or corporation to an individual or group of individuals. One of the most important government-issued rights — so important it's known simply as "the franchise" — is the right to vote. In its more commercial meaning, the fast-food chain McDonalds is a franchise. So are Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken and the New York Yankees. In other words, businesses from which you can buy a license in order to sell or use their products. More recently, the term has come to have an intellectual meaning as well, as in a particular series of books or films, such as the Harry Potter franchise.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

franchise franchises franchised franchising

Koenig signed on to a film franchise that followed, becoming a mainstay of "Star Trek" movies released between 1979 and 1994.

From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026

Last season's MVP previously set the franchise record for the Detroit Lions before joining the Rams in 2021.

From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026

On the court, the Valkyries’ unlikely franchise cornerstone is 5-foot-11 forward Gabby Williams, who spent four years at UConn overshadowed by stars like Napheesa Collier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

Is it just me, or is the manager not the problem for this woeful, dismally run franchise?

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2026

It’s a franchise: there are Soul Scrolls in every city center, in every suburb, or so they say.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

Rival franchises, like the dragon-filled “Fourth Wing” series from Rebecca Yarros, are in development for TV.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

Alas, in these days of milking dormant franchises for every drop of ichor, a simple explanation isn’t enough.

From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2026

Over the years, the production company founded by Jason Blum has found success with film franchises like “M3GAN” and “Paranormal Activity.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

The willingness of musical A-listers to work on GTA underlines the commercial and promotional power of one of the best-selling video game franchises in history.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

This corner of southwestern Idaho is unrelentingly poor and plain, with vast stretches of empty roads and treeless farmland, intersected by equally vast swatches of fast-food franchises and car dealerships.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

The deal covers Boots' retail operations in the UK and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Company and its Thailand and franchised businesses.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

The deal includes Boots’ retail operations in the U.K. and Ireland, Boots Opticians, No7 Beauty Co., and its Thailand and franchised businesses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

McDonald’s and Wendy’s franchised U.S. restaurants also tend to have better margins than Burger King’s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

He has also cited Greater Manchester's bus operating model, in which private bus firms bid to run services franchised by the local transport authority, as a possible model for regulating the water and energy sectors.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

Instead of the franchised blandness of American cities, Alexandria is a city of mom-and-pop stores, all with signage screaming for attention, their wares encroaching on the streets.

From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro

It should be available everywhere in Scotland by the end of this parliamentary term, by which time he said the Scottish government would, through franchising and regulation, have taken the bus network under public control.

From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026

Jersey Mike’s founder, Peter Cancro, began working there at age 14, bought the business in 1975 and started franchising the chain in 1987.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026

In the final minutes of the finale, Ebraheim calls Albert with the news that the franchising has begun.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

The company is also leaning more heavily on franchising overseas, where partners shoulder much of the investment required for new shops.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026

He is also franchising his intellectual property, creating other products such as a card game inspired by "Exquisite Corpses" while holding talks with video game developers.

From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026

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