grocer
Americannoun
-
grocers
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of grocer
1325–75; Middle English < Old French gross ( i ) er wholesale merchant. See gross, -er 2
Explanation
Someone who sells food in a supermarket or convenience store is a grocer. If you can't find your favorite kind of cereal on the shelf, you should ask the grocer to help you. The owner or manager of a grocery store is a grocer. This word once meant "one who buys and sells in gross," or in large quantities, from the Anglo-French grosser. By the 16th century, grocer also meant "merchant selling food," but earlier that person would've been called a spicer. Your neighborhood grocer might sell fresh produce from local farmers, unlike that big box supermarket out by the mall.
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 also said Amazon was the “second-largest grocer in the U.S.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
The grocer was founded in 1966 by Japanese immigrants Michio and Aveline Kushi — pioneers of the natural-foods macrobiotic movement who began selling imported organic goods out of their Boston home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
From the shelves of bougie Los Angeles grocer Erewhon to private events at clubs like Casa Cipriani, Loonen water has become the chosen hydration of the chic, affluent and health-conscious.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Its rapid growth is being mirrored across Europe, its rise aided by easing perceptions of it as a strictly discount grocer as shoppers became increasingly impressed by the quality of its products.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
“Come meet my grandbabies!” he would call out with pride to Clantons barber or grocer or dry cleaner.
From "While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement" by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
The ready-to-use food products that Taylor Farms recalled over the weekend had been sold at Trader Joe’s, Walmart and Target, among other grocers across the nation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Even though no U.S.-grown lettuce or other produce has been linked to the outbreaks, demand from grocers and restaurants is down, causing some farmers to plow their crops back into the ground.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Incumbent US grocers may look with some concern at the insurgency Aldi pulled off since it entered the UK market in the 1990s.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
But five grocers are already within a two-block radius of that proposed Harlem store, with 10 more within five blocks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
When he stands it’s like he’s on display in one of Emmett’s fancy grocers.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
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.
