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Synonyms

marketplace

American  
[mahr-kit-pleys] / ˈmɑr kɪtˌpleɪs /
Or market place

noun

  1. an open area in a town where a market is held.

  2. the commercial world; the realm of business, trade, and economics.

  3. any sphere considered as a place where ideas, thoughts, artistic creations, etc., compete for recognition.

marketplace British  
/ ˈmɑːkɪtˌpleɪs /

noun

  1. a place where a public market is held

  2. any centre where ideas, opinions, etc, are exchanged

  3. the commercial world of buying and selling

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of marketplace

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; market, place

Explanation

A marketplace is a location where people buy goods. When you travel to a new city, you should visit a marketplace to purchase souvenirs for your friends back home. Marketplace often describes an outdoor market where vendors sell produce, meat, crafts, and other goods. Depending where you are, a marketplace might be called a bazaar, a palengke, or a souk. A more general meaning is an economic system or market, or simply the everyday world where things get bought and sold. You should probably test your new lasagna-flavored ice cream in the marketplace to see if anyone will want to buy it!

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

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.

That says a lot about the accessibility and rising importance of the U.S. benchmark in the global energy marketplace since the start of the U.S.-Iran war.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 13, 2026

Vinted booked a sharp increase in annual revenue, as the online secondhand marketplace continued to expand its customer base.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026

In 2023, Authentic put the SI name on Lunatix, a sputtering ticket marketplace.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 5, 2026

What matters, she writes, is “the marketplace of ideas,” and “the case is textbook” because Colorado’s law “distinguishes between two opposed sets of ideas,” only one of which the state approves.

From Slate • Apr. 3, 2026

“They will put a machine in the marketplace instead. The machine will write the letters well enough, but the words the machine writes will have no elegance and no heart.”

From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan

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.