commerce

com·merce

C0508900 (kŏm′ərs)n.1. The buying and selling of goods, especially on a large scale, as between cities or nations. See Synonyms at business.2. Intellectual exchange or social interaction.3. Sexual intercourse.

[French, from Old French, from Latin commercium : com-, com- + merx, merc-, merchandise.]

commerce

(ˈkɒmɜːs) n1. (Commerce) the activity embracing all forms of the purchase and sale of goods and services2. social relations and exchange, esp of opinions, attitudes, etc[C16: from Latin commercium trade, from commercārī, from mercārī to trade, from merx merchandise]

com•merce

(ˈkɒm ərs)

n. 1. an interchange of goods or commodities between different countries or between areas of the same country; trade. 2. social relations, esp. the exchange of views, attitudes, etc. 3. sexual intercourse. [1530–40; < Middle French < Latin commercium <com- + mercārī to buy <merx goods]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	commerce - transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services)commercialism, mercantilismtrading - buying or selling securities or commoditiestrade - the commercial exchange (buying and selling on domestic or international markets) of goods and services; "Venice was an important center of trade with the East"; "they are accused of conspiring to constrain trade"e-commerce - commerce conducted electronically (as on the internet)interchange, exchange - reciprocal transfer of equivalent sums of money (especially the currencies of different countries); "he earns his living from the interchange of currency"initial offering, initial public offering, IPO - a corporation's first offer to sell stock to the publicbusiness enterprise, commercial enterprise, business - the activity of providing goods and services involving financial and commercial and industrial aspects; "computers are now widely used in business"shipping, transport, transportation - the commercial enterprise of moving goods and materialscarriage trade - trade from upper-class customerstransaction, dealing, dealings - the act of transacting within or between groups (as carrying on commercial activities); "no transactions are possible without him"; "he has always been honest is his dealings with me"importation, importing - the commercial activity of buying and bringing in goods from a foreign countryexporting, exportation - the commercial activity of selling and shipping goods to a foreign countrymarketing - the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service; "most companies have a manager in charge of marketing"distribution - the commercial activity of transporting and selling goods from a producer to a consumermarketing, merchandising, selling - the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of moneytraffic - buying and selling; especially illicit tradedefrayal, defrayment, payment - the act of paying moneyevasion, nonpayment - the deliberate act of failing to pay money; "his evasion of all his creditors"; "he was indicted for nonpayment"usance - the period of time permitted by commercial usage for the payment of a bill of exchange (especially a foreign bill of exchange)commercialise, commercialize, market - make commercial; "Some Amish people have commercialized their way of life"buy, purchase - obtain by purchase; acquire by means of a financial transaction; "The family purchased a new car"; "The conglomerate acquired a new company"; "She buys for the big department store"take - buy, select; "I'll take a pound of that sausage"get - purchase; "What did you get at the toy store?"clear - sell; "We cleared a lot of the old model cars"turn - get by buying and selling; "the company turned a good profit after a year"negociate - sell or discount; "negociate securities"sell - exchange or deliver for money or its equivalent; "He sold his house in January"; "She sells her body to survive and support her drug habit"sell short - sell securities or commodities or foreign currency that is not actually owned by the seller, who hopes to cover (buy back) the sold items at a lower price and thus to earn a profitremainder - sell cheaply as remainders; "The publisher remaindered the books"resell - sell (something) again after having bought itdeaccession - sell (art works) from a collection, especially in order to raise money for the purchase of other art works; "The museum deaccessioned several important works of this painter"fob off, foist off, palm off - sell as genuine, sell with the intention to deceiverealise, realize - convert into cash; of goods and propertyauction, auction off, auctioneer - sell at an auctionsell, trade, deal - do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood; "She deals in gold"; "The brothers sell shoes"transact - conduct business; "transact with foreign governments"deal - sell; "deal hashish"retail - sell on the retail marketwholesale - sell in large quantitiesliquidize, sell out, sell up - get rid of all one's merchandisetrade in, trade - turn in as payment or part payment for a purchase; "trade in an old car for a new one"merchandise, trade - engage in the trade of; "he is merchandising telephone sets"traffic - trade or deal a commodity; "They trafficked with us for gold"arbitrage - practice arbitrage, as in the stock marketturn over - do business worth a certain amount of money; "The company turns over ten million dollars a year"
	2.	Commerce - the United States federal department that promotes and administers domestic and foreign trade (including management of the census and the patent office); created in 1913Commerce Department, Department of Commerce, DoCexecutive department - a federal department in the executive branch of the government of the United StatesBureau of the Census, Census Bureau - the bureau of the Commerce Department responsible for taking the census; provides demographic information and analyses about the population of the United StatesNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA - an agency in the Department of Commerce that maps the oceans and conserves their living resources; predicts changes to the earth's environment; provides weather reports and forecasts floods and hurricanes and other natural disasters related to weatherTechnology Administration - an agency in the Department of Commerce that works with United States industries to promote competitiveness and maximize the impact of technology on economic growthPatent and Trademark Office Database, Patent Office - the government bureau in the Department of Commerce that keeps a record of patents and trademarks and grants new ones
	3.	commerce - social exchange, especially of opinions, attitudes, etc.conversation - the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.

commerce

nounCommercial, industrial, or professional activity in general:business, industry, trade, trading, traffic.

Translations

贸易

commerce

(ˈkoməːs) noun the exchange of goods between nations or people; trade on a large scale. He is engaged in commerce.贸易commercial (kəˈməːʃəl) adjective1. connected with commerce. Private cars are allowed to use this road but not commercial vehicles.商务的2. (likely to be) profitable. a commercial proposition.获利的3. paid for by advertisements. commercial television.广告付费的 noun a TV or radio advertisement. I enjoyed the play but the commercials irritated me.电视或广播广告commercialize, commercialise (kəˈməːʃəlaiz) verb to try to make (something) a source of profit. Christmas has become commercialized.商业化commercialism (kəˈməːʃəlizəm) noun商业主义commercial traveller a travelling representative of a business firm. 旅行推销员

commerce

commerce,

traffic in goods, usually thought of as trade between states or nations. Engaged in by all peoples from the earliest times, it has been carried on in some areas and by some peoples more than others, because of special geographical, technological, or economic advantages. The Egyptians, the Sumerians and later inhabitants of Mesopotamia, the Cretans, the Syrians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Arabs, and the Western Europeans have excelled in commerce, tapping the resources of the East, Oceania, the Americas, and Africa.

The Rise of Commerce in Europe

The Crusades did much to widen European trade horizons and prefaced the passing of trade superiority from Constantinople to Venice and other cities of N Italy. In the 15th and 16th cent. with the sudden expansion of Portugal and Spain the so-called commercial revolution reached a climax. In N and central Europe, the earlier supremacy of the Hanseatic League, the Rhenish cities, and the cities of N France and Flanders was eclipsed by the rise of national states. Antwerp began its long career of glory when the Spanish were losing hegemony, and the Dutch briefly triumphed in the race for world commerce in the 17th cent. The Dutch in turn gave way to a British-French rivalry that by 1815 left Great Britain paramount.

The rise of the chartered companychartered companies,
associations for foreign trade, exploration, and colonization that came into existence with the formation of the European nation states and their overseas expansion. An association received its charter from the state and sometimes had state support.
..... Click the link for more information. under the auspices of the national state had much to do with the expansion of trade, as did the modern corporationcorporation,
in law, organization enjoying legal personality for the purpose of carrying on certain activities. Most corporations are businesses for profit; they are usually organized by three or more subscribers who raise capital for the corporate activities by selling shares
..... Click the link for more information. , which later displaced the chartered company. The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and the 19th cent. also fostered the development of commerce, generating both products for trade and the means for trading them. World commerce was aided materially by the invention of the astrolabe, the mariner's compass, and the sextant; by the development of iron and steel construction; by the application of steam to both land and water transport; and by the more recent development of the telephone, telegraph, cable, radio, and the InternetInternet, the,
international computer network linking together thousands of individual networks at military and government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, industrial and financial corporations of all sizes, and commercial enterprises (called gateways
..... Click the link for more information. , and of inventions such as refrigeration, the gasoline engine, the electric motor, the airplane, and the computer.

International Trade Today

The theory of commerce as imposed by the national state has varied from the mercantilismmercantilism
, economic system of the major trading nations during the 16th, 17th, and 18th cent., based on the premise that national wealth and power were best served by increasing exports and collecting precious metals in return.
..... Click the link for more information. of the 17th and 18th cent. and the protective tariff of the 19th and 20th cent. to the free trade that Britain long upheld. After World War II the cold war limited trade between Communist and capitalist countries until the late 1980s, but the need for commercial expansion led to the creation of a number of international and regional systems designed to remove trade barriers. The International Monetary FundInternational Monetary Fund
(IMF), specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945. It was planned at the Bretton Woods Conference (1944), and its headquarters are in Washington, D.C.
..... Click the link for more information. was established in 1944 to help nations finance temporary trade deficits. The General Agreement on Tariffs and TradeGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), former specialized agency of the United Nations. It was established in 1948 as an interim measure pending the creation of the International Trade Organization.
..... Click the link for more information. (GATT), signed in 1947 by 23 major industrial countries to reduce tariffs, evolved into an ongoing mechanism for reducing trade barriers, and after eight rounds of negotiations, the Uruguay Round (the last round, 1995) created the World Trade OrganizationWorld Trade Organization
(WTO), international organization established in 1995 as a result of the final round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations, called the Uruguay Round.
..... Click the link for more information. .

In 1957 the European Economic Community was created, and in the 1980s and early 90s European leaders signed a series of agreements that created a unified West European economy in 1993 (see European UnionEuropean Union
(EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community (EC), an economic and political confederation of European nations, and other organizations (with the same member nations)
..... Click the link for more information. ). In 1992 leaders from the United States, Canada, and Mexico signed the North American Free Trade AgreementNorth American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), accord establishing a free-trade zone in North America; it was signed in 1992 by Canada, Mexico, and the United States and took effect on Jan. 1, 1994.
..... Click the link for more information. (NAFTA); MercosurMercosur
or Mercosul,
officially the Common Market of the South, Latin American trade organization established in 1991 to increase economic cooperation among the countries of E South America.
..... Click the link for more information. was established a year earlier in South America. Nonetheless, national economic interests have been difficult to overcome, and a number of countries, including the United States, passed protectionist legislation and enacted retaliatory tariffs in the 1980s and 90s.

Bibliography

See M. Beard, A History of Business (2 vol., 1938; repr. 1962–63); C. S. Belshaw, Traditional Exchange and Modern Markets (1965); W. Culican, The First Merchant Venturers (1967); R. S. Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages (1971); R. Rosencrance, The Rise of the Trading State (1986); W. Gill, Trade Wars against America (1990); A. K. Smith, Creating a World Economy (1991); J. J. Schott, ed., The World Trading System (1996).

Commerce,

city (1990 pop. 12,135), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1960. An important transportation hub for S California, Commerce is the home of several large corporations. There is food processing and diverse manufacturing. In 1927, Charles A. LindberghLindbergh, Charles Augustus,
1902–74, American aviator who made the first solo, nonstop transatlantic flight, b. Detroit; son of Charles A. Lindbergh (1859–1924). He left the Univ. of Wisconsin (1922) to study flying.
..... Click the link for more information. landed The Spirit of St. Louis at the old Vail Field in Commerce while on a nationwide tour following his transatlantic flight.

commerce

the activity embracing all forms of the purchase and sale of goods and services

commerce

com·merce

commerce

com•merce

commerce

commerce

commerce

commerce,

The Rise of Commerce in Europe

International Trade Today

Bibliography

Commerce,

commerce

Commerce

Commerce

Commerce

Commerce

commerce

Synonyms for commerce

noun commercial, industrial, or professional activity in general

Synonyms

Synonyms for commerce

noun transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services)

Synonyms

Related Words

noun the United States federal department that promotes and administers domestic and foreign trade (including management of the census and the patent office)

Synonyms

Related Words

noun social exchange, especially of opinions, attitudes, etc

Related Words