trading card

American

noun

one of a set of small cards, as one depicting professional athletes, either sold separately or included as a premium with packages of bubblegum or the like, collected and traded, especially by children.

trading card British

noun

any of a set of cards printed with images or information relating to a specific subject, intended to be traded between collectors seeking to acquire a full set

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

trading cards

plural

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:

trading card

You might find a trading card marketed as one of one, but someone could make another.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

“It is likely a temporary seizure for the purpose of the current fighting and it could also serve as a type of trading card for the future in the negotiations with the Lebanese,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026

Madden swapped the usual trading card stats for a pronunciation guide and the meaning of “Nauta-” in Latin.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026

In the days after the break-in, Celestial Collectibles saw nearby trading card shops donating stock and even children bringing in their own card collections to donate.

From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026

Nico tossed another trading card into the blue flames.

From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023