marketable
Americanadjective
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readily saleable.
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of or relating to selling or buying.
marketable values; marketable areas.
adjective
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being in good demand; saleable
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suitable for sale
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of or relating to buying or selling on a market
marketable value
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of marketable
Explanation
Marketable things are in a position to be sold, or are in demand in some way. A marketable employee is one that potential bosses want to hire. If you graduate from college with a degree in engineering or a nursing license, you will probably be marketable — employers will want to hire you. You might worry that you'll be less marketable if you major in philosophy or French literature, but in certain fields you will still be quite marketable. You can also describe anything that people will want to buy as marketable: "Your spinach-flavored ice cream idea just doesn't seem very marketable to me."
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.
I work for a company that employs people like me: writers with doctorates, a need for cash and very few marketable skills.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
Canadian production of marketable natural gas climbed 6.3% on-year, notching a third consecutive record high as domestic consumption and exports grew.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 31, 2026
If companies can find a way to produce these fuels at marketable prices similar to fossil fuels, it's obvious what kind of impact they could have.
From BBC • Mar. 24, 2026
The company ended the year with $1.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable debt following a series of equity raises.
From Barron's • Mar. 17, 2026
He hadn’t seen what he’d been doing for years—building computers, writing code, playing games, installing complicated software and operating systems—as something marketable or valuable, something that offered status or options in the larger society.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
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.
