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• merchant
  merchant

  noun

  a person who buys and sells commodities for profit; dealer; trader.
• Merchant
  Merchant

  noun

  Ismail (ˈɪzmeɪəl). 1936–2005, Indian film producer, noted for his collaboration with James Ivory on such films as Shakespeare Wallah (1965), The Europeans (1979), A Room with a View (1986), The Remains of the Day (1993), and The Golden Bowl (2000)

merchant

American  

[mur-chuhnt] / ˈmɜr tʃənt /

noun

• merchants
  plural

1. a person who buys and sells commodities for profit; dealer; trader.

2. a storekeeper; retailer.

   a local merchant who owns a store on Main Street.

3. Chiefly British. a wholesaler.

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adjective

1. pertaining to or used for trade or commerce.

   a merchant ship.

2. pertaining to the merchant marine.

3. Steelmaking. (of bars and ingots) of standard shape or size.

merchant ¹ British  

/ ˈmɜːtʃənt /

noun

1. a person engaged in the purchase and sale of commodities for profit, esp on international markets; trader

2. a person engaged in retail trade

3. (esp in historical contexts) any trader

4. derogatory a person dealing or involved in something undesirable

   a gossip merchant

5. (modifier)

   1. of the merchant navy

      a merchant sailor

   2. of or concerned with trade

      a merchant ship

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verb

1. (tr) to conduct trade in; deal in

Merchant ² British  

/ ˈmɜːtʃənt /

noun

1. Ismail (ˈɪzmeɪəl). 1936–2005, Indian film producer, noted for his collaboration with James Ivory on such films as Shakespeare Wallah (1965), The Europeans (1979), A Room with a View (1986), The Remains of the Day (1993), and The Golden Bowl (2000)

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• outmerchant
  noun
• merchant-like
  adjective
• merchantlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• merchants
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of merchant

1250–1300; Middle English marchant < Old French marcheant < Vulgar Latin *mercātant- (stem of *mercātāns ), present participle of *mercātāre, frequentative of Latin mercārī to trade, derivative of merx goods

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Explanation

A merchant is someone who works in or owns a retail business and sells goods. In Paris you can stroll from merchant to merchant, buying a loaf of bread in one shop and a wedge of cheese in another. The noun merchant has its Latin roots in the word merchari, meaning to trade. Other words from the same root include "market," "merchandise," and "mercantile." In some areas, independent merchants have banded together to combine advertising dollars and compete against malls and big box stores. You should ask your neighborhood book merchant if they've considered joining a group like this.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

merchant Merchant merchants

Firms offering merchant cash advances promise quick relief: cash in 24 hours or less, easy applications, past credit troubles no problem.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Heather Schwedel spoke with a Home Depot merchant to get the inside scoop on how these giant skeletons came to be.

From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2026

Lawmakers in a dozen states have passed laws on merchant cash advances.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

Analysts predict the merchant cash advance market could amount to $35 billion by 2030.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

Rented from wealthy financier and merchant Robert Morris—who obligingly moved to another house on the same block to make way for the Washingtons—it would serve as both the president’s office and the official residence.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

After serving in the Merchant Marine and working as a staff photographer, he was hired by Harper’s Bazaar to cover the couture shows and models in post-World War II Paris.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026

Merchant cash advances deliver quick funding, but some carry effective finance costs as high as 2,000%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Merchant, Mathew, Pabon and Bermingham have all served various jail terms.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

“Guidance embeds supply constraints leaving potential for upside,” Asiya Merchant, director of tech equity research, wrote in a note Wednesday.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

Many of the leading Whigs dined daily at the Queen, and one man after another stopped at their table to laugh over Merchant Lyte’s public discomfiture that morning in court.

From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes

Ambitious merchants and statesmen sketched projects from maps without understanding conditions on the ground.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

President Harley Finkelstein called the report “the perfect example” of Shopify’s ability to deliver on what merchants need today while investing in agentic commerce and other technologies of the future.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026

In the run-up to the protests on Saturday, the Paris police commissioner, Patrice Faure, heightened anxieties by advising merchants to hire security guards, saying police alone could not “guarantee the protection of every business.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026

ByteDance has said merchants can’t buy their way into better recommendations.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026

His fellow merchants had abandoned him, and his best friend had paid a fortune to hire the murder god of an accidental religion—Cid, who had been my first love.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

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Related Words

• broker
• dealer
• exporter
• operator
• retailer
• seller
• shipper
• shopkeeper
• trader
• trafficker
• vendor
• wholesaler

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