commodity
/kəˈmɑdəti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.86 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Raw materials, agricultural and other primary products as objects of large-scale trading in specialized exchanges.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
Undifferentiated goods characterized by a low profit margin and (usually) fungibility, as distinguished from branded products not wholly fungible.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "It is with the help of the commodity concept that the mechanism of the market is geared to the various elements of industrial life. Commodities are here empirically defined as objects produced for sale on the market; […]. But labor, land, and money are obviously not commodities; the postulate that anything that is bought and sold must have been produced for sale is emphatically untrue in regard to them."
- "If a key part of shopping is the conversion of anonymous commodities into possessions, shopping is a cultural as much as an economic activity."
- "In human geography "commodities" usually refers to goods and services which are bought and sold. The simplest commodities are those produced by the production system just before they are sold."
- "Referring to the work of Bourdieu, Zukin (2004,38) notes that shopping is much more than the purchase of commodities."
- "For mineral trains, he adds little other than pointing out the need to expand single-commodity trains and to end the use of mixed-commodity services that required extensive marshalling."
- "And Slade said: "It really makes me sad that football club chairmen and boards seem to have lost that most precious commodity - patience. "Sam's sacking at Newcastle had, I suppose, been on the cards for a while, but it is really ridiculous to fire a manager after such a short time."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin com- Proto-Indo-European *med- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Italic *medos Latin modus Latin commodus Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Proto-Italic *-tāts Latin -tās Latin commoditāsder. Anglo-Norman commoditeebor. Middle English commoditee English commodity Inherited from Middle English commoditee, borrowed from Anglo-Norman commoditee, from Latin commoditās.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kəˈmɑdəti/
- British English: /kəˈmɒdəti/