industry
Americannoun
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industries
plural
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the aggregate of manufacturing or technically productive enterprises in a particular field, often named after its principal product.
the automobile industry;
the steel industry.
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any general business activity; commercial enterprise.
the Italian tourist industry.
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trade or manufacture in general.
the rise of industry in Africa.
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the ownership and management of companies, factories, etc..
friction between labor and industry.
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systematic work or labor.
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energetic, devoted activity at any work or task; diligence.
Her teacher praised her industry.
- Synonyms:
- industriousness, assiduity, effort, application
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the aggregate of work, scholarship, and ancillary activity in a particular field, often named after its principal subject.
the Mozart industry.
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Archaeology. an assemblage of artifacts regarded as unmistakably the work of a single prehistoric group.
noun
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organized economic activity concerned with manufacture, extraction and processing of raw materials, or construction
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a branch of commercial enterprise concerned with the output of a specified product or service
the steel industry
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industrial ownership and management interests collectively, as contrasted with labour interests
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manufacturing enterprise collectively, as opposed to agriculture
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diligence; assiduity
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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mini-industrynoun
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preindustrynoun
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subindustrynoun
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superindustrynoun
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interindustryadjective
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nonindustryadjective
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proindustryadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of industry
First recorded in 1475–85; earlier industrie, from Latin industria, noun use of feminine of industrius “diligent, assiduous”; see industrious
Explanation
An industry is a group of manufacturers or businesses that produce a particular kind of goods or services. Workers in the textile industry design, fabricate, and sell cloth. The tourist industry includes all the commercial aspects of tourism. You can use industry to refer to a group of similar businesses: The automobile industry makes cars and car parts. The food service industry prepares food and delivers it to hotels, schools, and other big facilities. Industry comes from the Latin industria, which means "diligence, hard work," and the word is still used with that meaning. If you build a house in three weeks, when the same job takes everyone else three months, you're showing impressive industry.
Vocabulary lists containing industry
Can I Work It? Words for "Job"
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The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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Africa - Introductory
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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:
The five-day 2026 World Robot Conference, which started on Wednesday, comes as the country continues to expand its robotics industry.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
The festival’s founders boast quite an industry lineage, having met on the set of a Sofia Coppola movie, where they were production assistants.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2026
St. Louis resident Kathy Helbig has been in the real-estate industry for the last 30 years.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
Tommee Larochelle, an engineer and specialist in the development of rare earths extraction and refining processes, questions the commercial viability of the WVU project but says it could "ensure minimum supply to the defense industry."
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
The consolidation of the industry started with innovations in transportation: first canals, then railroads.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
“Sadly, the impact will not be short-term,” he said, “and the impact will cause significant supply-chain stress, in virtually all essential industries, for many months, and possibly years.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
Glenn Wakai, a state senator, said new industries would help keep more residents on the islands where they grew up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced last month that he wanted to ensure teenagers had technical routes into careers tailored around local industries.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
The growth of New York’s tech talent highlights how tech workers are spilling into other industries and cities as Silicon Valley companies lay off workers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
But those average figures conceal big differences among the industries of each country, related to differences in organization—and those differences are very instructive.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
