marketplace
Americannoun
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a place where a public market is held
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any centre where ideas, opinions, etc, are exchanged
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the commercial world of buying and selling
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of marketplace
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at 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!
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:
Under the deal, Russia would release an initial 300,000 tonnes of diesel "to the American and global marketplace" followed by an additional 500,000 tonnes in November.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
That’s why we’re cautiously hopeful that after the midterms, Congress will seize the opportunity to make prior authorization and broader insurance marketplace reforms a priority.
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2026
“Being a large multinational Western brand in the China marketplace no longer is enough to win,” Sparks said in an interview.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
The work featuring the young Black man has disappeared from the marketplace, tucked into a private collection, the auction house says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
He sat all day in his marketplace stall hoping to make a few rupees by writing letters for those who did not know how to write their own.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
But not all travel marketplaces are equally exposed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
There’s an ongoing desperate scramble to find available AI chips and data-center infrastructure from cloud providers, neoclouds and a number of upstart marketplaces offering quick access to computing power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The final version excludes resale marketplaces from the definition of a speculative ticket seller.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
"And source things from online marketplaces or antique markets for unique pieces that tell a story and make a space feel more lived-in and curated over time."
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
In recent years, economists have spent a great deal of time studying Mavens, for the obvious reason that if marketplaces depend on information, the people with the most information must be the most important.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
