the aggregate of manufacturing or technically productive enterprises in a particular field, often named after its principal product: the automobile industry; the steel industry.
any general business activity; commercial enterprise: the Italian tourist industry.
trade or manufacture in general: the rise of industry in Africa.
the ownership and management of companies, factories, etc.: friction between labor and industry.
systematic work or labor.
energetic, devoted activity at any work or task; diligence: Her teacher praised her industry.
the aggregate of work, scholarship, and ancillary activity in a particular field, often named after its principal subject: the Mozart industry.
Archaeology. an assemblage of artifacts regarded as unmistakably the work of a single prehistoric group.
Origin of industry
1475–85; earlier industrie < Latinindustria, noun use of feminine of industriusindustrious
Related formsin·ter·in·dus·try, adjectivemin·i-in·dus·try, noun,pluralmin·i-in·dus·tries.non·in·dus·try, adjectivepre·in·dus·try, noun, adjectivepro·in·dus·try, adjectivesub·in·dus·try, noun,pluralsub·in·dus·tries.su·per·in·dus·try, noun,pluralsu·per·in·dus·tries.
late 15c., "cleverness, skill," from Old French industrie "activity; aptitude" (14c.) or directly from Latin industria "diligence, activity, zeal," fem. of industrius "industrious, diligent," used as a noun, from early Latin indostruus "diligent," from indu "in, within" + stem of struere "to build" (see structure (n.)). Sense of "diligence, effort" is from 1530s; meaning "trade or manufacture" first recorded 1560s; that of "systematic work" is 1610s.
