inventory
Americannoun
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a complete listing of merchandise or stock on hand, work in progress, raw materials, finished goods on hand, etc., made each year by a business concern.
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the objects or items represented on such a list, as a merchant's stock of goods.
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the aggregate value of a stock of goods.
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raw material from the time of its receipt at an industrial plant for manufacturing purposes to the time it is sold.
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a detailed, often descriptive, list of articles, giving the code number, quantity, and value of each; catalog.
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a formal list of movables, as of a merchant's stock of goods.
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a formal list of the property of a person or estate.
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a tally of one's personality traits, aptitudes, skills, etc., for use in counseling and guidance.
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a catalog of natural resources, especially a count or estimate of wildlife and game in a particular area.
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the act of making a catalog or detailed listing.
verb (used with object)
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to make an inventory of; enter in an inventory; catalog.
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to take stock of; evaluate.
to inventory one's life and accomplishments.
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to summarize.
to inventory the progress in chemistry.
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to keep an available supply of (merchandise); stock.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a detailed list of articles, goods, property, etc
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(often plural) accounting
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the amount or value of a firm's current assets that consist of raw materials, work in progress, and finished goods; stock
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such assets individually
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verb
Usage
What does inventory mean? An inventory is a complete list of all merchandise or stock of items owned by or available from a business. At a store, an inventory is the complete list of all items for sale at the store. At a manufacturer, an inventory is a complete list of all the raw materials they have, as well as finished items and items being created. An inventory is also the specific set of products to sell, as in The store’s inventory of superhero capes is running low and will probably sell out soon. An inventory can also refer to figurative belongings, such as a person’s personality traits and skills. To inventory means to add things to an inventory list, whether a literal or figurative list, as in I inventoried my options for colleges and chose the school I’ll attend next year. Example: Can you take inventory tonight so we can be ready for the rush tomorrow?
Synonym Usage
See list 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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preinventorynoun
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inventoriableadjective
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inventorialadjective
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overinventoriedadjective
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inventoriallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inventorysimple
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inventoriessimple
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have inventoriedperfect
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has inventoriedperfect
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am inventoryingprogressive
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are inventoryingprogressive
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is inventoryingprogressive
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have been inventoryingperfect progressive
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has been inventoryingperfect progressive
Past
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inventoriedsimple
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had inventoriedperfect
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was inventoryingprogressive
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were inventoryingprogressive
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had been inventoryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of inventory
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English inventorie, from Medieval Latin inventōrium; see invent, -tory 2
Explanation
An inventory is an itemized list of everything you have. So you better take inventory of what’s in the fridge before going grocery shopping. Otherwise you'll end up with more jars of mustard that you don't need. The noun form of inventory developed in the early 15th century from the Middle French inventaire, meaning “detailed list of goods.” It's most commonly used in retail: a shop's inventory is everything that they have in stock, ready to sell. You can also use inventory as a verb when you want to describe the act of listing out the merchandise or supplies you have on hand.
Vocabulary lists containing inventory
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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:
“But there’s a lot you can do. I do a deep inventory of what’s out there and see how we can leverage what’s there to help.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
In the U.S., gasoline inventory is about 8% lower than the five-year average for this time of year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Unlike homeowners, who can take their house off the market and wait for a more opportune time to sell, builders need to move inventory to keep their businesses profitable.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 16, 2026
“They left a lot of money on the table by not being able to maintain inventory during the World Cup,” said Neil Schwartz, president of Sports Business Research Network.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
One afternoon I was in my room making a CD when Sizwe came over to pick up his inventory.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
Despite tight fuel inventories, global gasoline demand has remained resilient because of government policies to protect consumers from high prices, according to the IEA.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
Global gasoline inventories were 3% below the trailing-five-year average as of June and the gap is expected to widen to 4% this month, according to S&P Global.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
With inventories depleted and some refineries damaged, prices will have to stay high enough to curtail demand to balance the market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Unless inventories are replenished, the world will start from a weaker position when the next shock comes,” the IMF said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
They wanted to shape things/design things, create things, sell things, buy things, keep track of inventories, do somebody else’s taxes, and read somebody else’s X-rays from half a world away.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
A suspect isn’t supposed to take belongings from a crime scene before the items are inspected and inventoried.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
In total, the rescission would apply to nearly 45 million acres of the nearly 60 million acres of inventoried roadless areas within the National Forest system, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2025
The model, called AviTeam, is the first to provide information for the 45 lesser-developed countries that have never inventoried their greenhouse gas emissions from aviation.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 30, 2024
Repairing and updating the inventoried aircraft so they are airworthy takes about the same amount of resources as building an all-new aircraft, he added.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2024
When we got to Beechwood in late June, Bess had already inventoried Gran’s Boston possessions and now began with those in Clairmont.
From "We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart
"Carbon inventorying is still an evolving science," said Yunyu Zhang, lead author and graduate student from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 28, 2024
In a April 2021 executive order, President Joe Biden told the US Forest Service to start inventorying and protecting the 150-year-old "old-growth" forests which face logging threats.
From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2023
“We have 10,000 pieces and we are inventorying them,” he told a Spanish newspaper, El País.
From New York Times ● Jan. 14, 2023
The remaining grant money will be spent inventorying the state’s backlogged kits and investigating criminal cases against suspects identified through DNA, the state Attorney General’s Office said at the time.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2018
She held me at arm’s length, inventorying every little new freckle, every extra pound.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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.
