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Synonyms

mart

1 American  
[mahrt] / mɑrt /

noun

  1. market; trading center; trade center.

  2. a building, center, or exposition for the sale of goods by manufacturers and wholesalers to retail merchants.

  3. Archaic. a fair.

  4. Obsolete. bargain.

mart 2 American  
[mahrt] / mɑrt /

noun

Scot. and North England.

  1. a cow or ox fattened for slaughter.

mart British  
/ mɑːt /

noun

  1. a market or trading centre

"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 mart1

1400–50; late Middle English < Middle Dutch mar ( c ) t market

Origin of mart2

1300–50; Middle English < Scots Gaelic; compare MIr mart ox or cow slaughtered for meat, carcass, hence a live ox or cow

Vocabulary lists containing mart

"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 1

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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.

Indeed, the lines at the Oasis pop-up merch mart in Hollywood have been formidable, as fans rushed to commemorate the reunion they feared might never come.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 5, 2025

Others were recovered without their identifying ear tags at a local abattoir and an auction mart while some were given to another farmer to pay off a debt.

From BBC • May 28, 2025

People may say they would be satisfied with winning a smaller sum, but it’s the giant jackpots that prompt people to drop a few dollars on a Powerball ticket at the mini mart.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 6, 2023

She shows copies of ship manifests and receipts for sold enslaved people, and ends up at a building constructed as an enslaved person mart in the 1850s.

From Washington Post • Jul. 8, 2022

“We found a new waste mart man, but he’s worse than stingy.”

From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman

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.