trade edition

American  

noun

1. an edition of a book for distribution through general bookstores.

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Etymology

Origin of trade edition

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

The art was reissued later that year by Random House in a one-volume trade edition, helping to make Kent’s turbulent engravings—of Captain Ahab, the Pequod’s crew and the elusive white whale—iconic.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026

The cheapest of them is the trade edition at $250.

From Golf Digest • Oct. 18, 2017

So for me, it’s a cool ego thing — I get to be in the trade edition.

From New York Times • Sep. 3, 2011

It will be published in a trade edition by Yale in due course.

From The Guardian • Feb. 2, 2011

Johnson's "Lives of the Poets" were written to serve as Introductions to a trade edition of the works of poets whom the booksellers selected for republication.

From Johnson's Lives of the Poets — Volume 1 by Johnson, Samuel