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
Hilliard, the HHS spokeswoman, said the agency monitors the marketplace and has taken action against the sale of unapproved peptide products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Additionally, this porchfest features a coinciding dog parade and a marketplace.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
Returning to Village along the path that was deep in shadows now, Matty heard sounds from the area beyond the marketplace.
From "Messenger" by Lois Lowry
One of his early successes at Thrive came in 2012 when Kushner launched a health insurer called Oscar that sold coverage directly to individuals in the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 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 the marketplaces you basically only find pangolin scales, not the whole animals, which makes it hard to know which species are being hunted and where they are coming from," says Feijó.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
By unloading volumes like “Home Long-Term Oxygen Treatment in Italy” and “Marriage Litigation in Medieval England” on third-party marketplaces, he has roughly doubled his revenue from this point in 2025.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Along with the crops, they were useful commodities in the marketplaces of each city in the trade networks initially established by the Toltecs.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
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.
