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
Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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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:
Yet many markets are still seeing home prices fall as inventory piles up, especially in the Mountain West and the Sun Belt.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
The jump in active listings in Vegas is much larger than the national gain in housing inventory of1.9%.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
He also says that, while IBM itself prepurchased $600 million in hardware to get ahead of price increases, it isn’t financially prudent for companies to continue buying hardware, only to have it languish in inventory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Pending a change in regulation, this will be the end of the line for releases from the reserve, which is required by statute to maintain a minimum inventory of about 250 million barrels of oil.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
I found Aech’s sword a minute later and added it to my inventory, but it took me another five minutes of searching before I found Art3mis’s magic sneakers, near the south end of the crater.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
Despite the U.S.-Iran pause in attacks, oil prices remain supported as a result of falling inventories and pressure on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, ANZ analysts wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The White House has been informed of the declining inventories of air defense interceptors by Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, officials added.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Hundreds of small businesses saw their inventories wiped out in the strike, triggering angry comments on social media.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Management broadly painted an optimistic view of next year, when it expects that companies and governments will look to replenish their inventories and solidify new supply connections as the war reshapes energy markets.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
These are the ones that repeatedly turn up in style guides, pet-peeve lists, newspaper language columns, irate letters to the editor, and inventories of common errors in student papers.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
“Helfenstein also evaluated and inventoried looted items, and arranged for their packing and shipment to Germany.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 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
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
First the scientists analyzed US government records that inventoried California kelp forests as far back as 1910, compared them with modern information about those same kelp forests today.
From Salon ● Jan. 23, 2024
He sat in the sand and inventoried the contents of the knapsack.
From "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
"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
One by one, family members and friends speak this line to Vanya before inventorying their own monumental unhappiness.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2023
In “Giraffe,” an ethnologist is tasked with inventorying an abandoned cottage in the Danish countryside: books, photos, journals.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
I was squatting on the floor methodically inventorying my bounty to help streamline thank-you-card writing when my mother-in-law, who was visiting from Chennai, beckoned me over to our galley kitchen.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2021
He looks me over as if inventorying my whole being.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
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.
