trade

American  

[trayd] / treɪd /

noun

• trades
  plural

1. the act or process of buying, selling, or exchanging commodities, at either wholesale or retail, within a country or between countries.

   domestic trade; foreign trade.

   Synonyms:

   dealing, barter, business

2. the act of buying, selling, or exchanging stocks, bonds, or currency.

   Stock brokerages typically charge a commission per trade.

3. a purchase or sale; business deal or transaction.

4. an exchange of items, usually without payment of money.

   Synonyms:

   swap

5. Sports. the transfer of a player or players among professional teams.

   a midseason trade.

6. any occupation pursued as a business or livelihood.

   Synonyms:

   craft, living, employment, métier, vocation

7. some line of skilled manual or mechanical work; craft.

   the trade of a carpenter; printer's trade.

8. people engaged in a particular line of business.

   a lecture of interest only to the trade.

9. market.

   an increase in the tourist trade.

10. a field of business activity.

    a magazine for the furniture trade.

11. the customers of a business establishment.

12. Informal. trade paper.

13. trades. trade wind.

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verb (used with object)

• trades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• traded,
  past participle,  past
• trading
  present participle

1. to buy and sell; barter; traffic in.

2. to exchange.

   to trade seats.

3. Sports. to transfer (a player under contract) from one team to another.

   The manager traded two defensive players at the end of the season.

verb (used without object)

• trades,
  present (3rd person singular)
• traded,
  past participle,  past
• trading
  present participle

1. to carry on trade.

2. to be bought, sold, or exchanged.

   Stocks traded lower after the release of the jobs report.

3. to traffic (usually followed byin ).

   a tyrant who trades in human lives.

4. to make an exchange.

5. to make one's purchases; shop; buy.

adjective

1. of or relating to trade or commerce.

2. used by, serving, or intended for a particular trade.

   trade journal.

3. Also trades. of, composed of, or serving the members of a trade.

   a trade club.

verb phrase

1. trade in to give (a used article) as payment to be credited toward a purchase.

   We trade in our car every three years.

2. trade down to exchange a more valuable or desirable item for a less valuable or desirable one.

3. trade up to exchange a less valuable or desirable item for a more valuable or desirable one.

4. trade off to exchange something for or with another.

5. trade on / upon to turn to one's advantage, especially selfishly or unfairly; exploit.

   to trade on the weaknesses of others.

trade British  

/ treɪd /

noun

1. the act or an instance of buying and selling goods and services either on the domestic (wholesale and retail) markets or on the international (import, export, and entrepôt) markets

2. a personal occupation, esp a craft requiring skill

3. the people and practices of an industry, craft, or business

4. exchange of one thing for something else

5. the regular clientele of a firm or industry

6. amount of custom or commercial dealings; business

7. a specified market or business

   the tailoring trade

8. an occupation in commerce, as opposed to a profession

9. commercial customers, as opposed to the general public

   trade only

   trade advertising

10. slang:homosexual a sexual partner or sexual partners collectively

11. archaic a custom or habit

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verb

1. (tr) to buy and sell (commercial merchandise)

2. to exchange (one thing) for another

3. (intr) to engage in trade

4. (intr) to deal or do business (with)

   we trade with them regularly

adjective

1. intended for or available only to people in industry or business

   trade prices

trade Cultural  

1. Business or commerce; economic activity.

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trade Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing trade

• tricks of the trade

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Synonym Usage

Trade , commerce , traffic refer to the exchanging of commodities for other commodities or money. Trade is the general word: a brisk trade between the nations. Commerce applies to trade on a large scale and over an extensive area: international commerce. Traffic may refer to a particular kind of trade; but it usually suggests the travel, transportation, and activity associated with or incident to trade: the opium traffic; heavy traffic on the railroads. See occupation. Trade , bargain , barter , sell refer to exchange or transfer of ownership for some kind of material consideration. Trade conveys the general idea, but often means to exchange articles of more or less even value: to trade with Argentina. Bargain suggests a somewhat extended period of coming to terms: to bargain about the price of a horse. Barter applies especially to exchanging goods, wares, labor, etc., with no transfer of money for the transaction: to barter wheat for machinery. Sell implies transferring ownership, usually for a sum of money: to sell a car.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• intertrade
  noun
• nontrade
  noun
• retrade
  verb
• undertrade
  verb
• nontrading
  adjective
• protrade
  adjective
• tradable
  adjective
• tradeable
  adjective
• tradeless
  adjective
• untradable
  adjective
• untradeable
  adjective
• untraded
  adjective
• untrading
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• trades
  plural

Participles

• trading
  present
• traded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• trade
  simple
• trades
  simple
• have traded
  perfect
• has traded
  perfect
• am trading
  progressive
• are trading
  progressive
• is trading
  progressive
• have been trading
  perfect progressive
• has been trading
  perfect progressive

Past

• traded
  simple
• had traded
  perfect
• was trading
  progressive
• were trading
  progressive
• had been trading
  perfect progressive

Future

• will trade
  simple
• will have traded
  perfect
• will be trading
  progressive
• will have been trading
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of trade

First recorded in 1300–50; 1540–50 trade for def. 6; Middle English: “course, path, track,” from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch ( Old Saxon trada ), cognate with Old High German trata; akin to tread

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Explanation

When Bobby has peanut butter but wants bologna and Billy has bologna but wants peanut butter––they can make a trade. Trade also means a set of job skills––to learn a trade means to train for a certain job. The concept of trading––or bartering––forms the basis of modern civilization––it brings along division of labor, literacy, urbanization. Thinking in those terms you can see how tradespeople––those trained in trades end up essentially trading their services, with money being introduced when the barter system breaks down or becomes too complex.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

trade trades traded trading

US President Donald Trump has notified Congress of his intention to remove South Africa and Rwanda from a preferential trade programme, from 1 January 2027.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

Having roughly doubled in price this year, Marvell shares now trade at about 65 times trailing estimates for earnings per share, according to FactSet.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

If it walks like a bet and quacks like a bet, it’s a bet, not a trade.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Stocks are sputtering as the tech trade loses steam.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

“But they didn’t know anything about CDOs, or asset-backed securities. We took them through our trade but I’m pretty sure they didn’t understand it.”

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

It speculates it is due to investors rotating out of trades related to artificial intelligence, as opposed to stellar updates on banks’ profit outlooks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall argues Netflix deserves the multiple of a hit-driven media company such as Disney, about 15 times earnings, and the stock already trades not far above that, at around 17.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Recent weakness in stock markets has helped convince Citi strategists to abandon one of their main trades: long on hyperscalers and growth stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

“These people have made so much money, they’re quitting to hedge their stock,” Solaka said, adding that some companies have restrictions around employees’ trades.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

Of course there were other kinds of trades, Matty knew, though he didn’t fully understand.

From "Messenger" by Lois Lowry

Martha Stewart traded homemaking for homelessness on Halloween.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

Cryptocurrencies are digital assets traded on exchanges such as Binance.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

So-called dual- or multi-class ownership structures, once rare for publicly traded companies, have been debated on Wall Street for more than 100 years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

Home builders have traded down to cheaper materials, but they still face higher price tags for basic construction components.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

The girls traded glances as Beverly began talking.

From "Scream for Ice Cream: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #2" by Carolyn Keene

Shares of Marvell were up about 1% in premarket trading on Monday, though they fell last week after Bloomberg News reported on a potential combination.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

Mr. Mansour invokes small-business hedging and price discovery to defend prediction markets, but most of Kalshi’s trading is on sports, which offers little of either.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

The United States is its biggest individual market, while the European Union is its largest trading bloc.

From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026

By that measure, the stocks in developed markets outside the U.S. as a group are trading at a 28% discount to U.S. large-cap stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

I’ve been trading, collecting things to sell in the secondhand shops and sometimes in the rubbish bins outside the nicer houses, washing and sewing and repairing what I find.

From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron

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Related Words

• business
• commerce
• contract
• deal
• enterprise
• exchange
• industry
• market
• traffic
• transaction

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