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oligopoly

American  
[ol-i-gop-uh-lee] / ˌɒl ɪˈgɒp ə li /

noun

  1. the market condition that exists when there are few sellers, as a result of which they can greatly influence price and other market factors.

oligopoly British  
/ ˌɒlɪˈɡɒpəlɪ /

noun

  1. economics a market situation in which control over the supply of a commodity is held by a small number of producers each of whom is able to influence prices and thus directly affect the position of competitors

"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
oligopoly Cultural  

  1. Control over the production and sale of a product or service by a few companies.

Other Word Forms

  • oligopolistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of oligopoly

First recorded in 1890–95; oligo- + (mono)poly

Explanation

In an oligopoly, a few powerful merchants or companies control the entire market. If you and three friends buy up all the toilet paper factories in the world, you will have a toilet paper oligopoly. Oligopoly comes from the ancient Greek oligo-, for "few," and pole, for "merchant," but the term wasn't invented until the late 19th century. In an economic oligopoly, only a few producers control the supply of something (like steel, cars, or clown suits), and each one has a lot of influence over prices. Oligopoly might remind you of monopoly, which is when a single producer controls the whole market.

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Vocabulary lists containing oligopoly

Economics

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Microeconomics

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Chapter 6, Sections 1–4

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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.

Evercore calls this process “the erosion of oligopoly rents.”

From MarketWatch • Feb. 24, 2026

"The problem with this industry is that the supply chain is an oligopoly and sometimes even a duopoly."

From BBC • Feb. 3, 2026

Instead, we have an oligopoly of dominant banks that issue them: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, American Express, Citigroup and Capital One, which together account for about 70% of all transactions.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 26, 2026

The wireless industry oligopoly of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile has also grown more competitive as a new Verizon CEO seeks to boost its subscriber base.

From Barron's • Jan. 2, 2026

Carolyn Rogers endorsed a competition shakeup in the highly concentrated financial-services industry, saying the country’s banking sector is an oligopoly and changes could help lift Canada’s prolonged productivity slump.

From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 30, 2025

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.