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:
With Norm and Maria, they were people who did not adjust their work for the marketplace, they had unique visions and stuck to them — Maria still does.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
Even the platform formerly known as Twitter is enjoying something of a renaissance, with Musk's X now the go-to social media app for Silicon Valley insiders and the main marketplace for talk about artificial intelligence.
From Barron's ● Oct. 18, 2026
“There’s a tension in the marketplace in that, even though the market is up year to date, it’s considerably cheaper versus forecasts for next year’s earnings,” Monaghan told MarketWatch on Friday.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 18, 2026
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
To some meaningful number of his investors, it looked as if Burry simply did not want to accept the judgment of the marketplace: He’d made a bad bet and was failing to accept his loss.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
PSA said it was taking measures to prevent the stolen cards from circulating through the usual venues and marketplaces while also reimbursing card owners for at least a portion of their losses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
The final version excludes resale marketplaces from the definition of a speculative ticket seller.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
A quick search of online marketplaces reveals all sorts of modifications on offer, often shipped from eastern Europe, including motorbike-style twist grip throttles which allow the rider to accelerate without pedalling.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Online marketplaces have proven to be an easy, cheap source of replacement parts, the Journal has reported.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 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
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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.
