Adjacent Words

Commodity definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COMMODITY, n.
1. Primarily, convenience; profit; advantage; interest. Men seek their own commodity. In this sense it was used by Hooker, Sidney, _c; but this is nearly or wholly obsolete.
2. That which affords ease, convenience or advantage; any thing that is useful, but particularly in commerce, including every thing movable that is bought and sold, goods, wares, merchandize, produce of land and manufactures. Unless perhaps animals may be excepted, the word includes all the movables which are objects of commerce.
Commodities are movables, valuable by money, the common measure.
The principal use of money is to save the commutation of more bulky commodities.
Staple commodities are those which are the produce or manufacture of a country, and constitute the principal articles of exportation. Thus flour is the staple commodity of New-York and Pennsylvania; flour and tobacco, of Maryland and Virginia; cotton and rice, of S. Carolina and Georgia; cotton and sugar, of Louisiana.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: articles of commerce [syn: commodity, trade good, good]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Etymology: Middle English commoditee, from Anglo-French commoditee, from Latin commoditat-, commoditas, from commodus Date: 15th century 1. an economic good: as a. a product of agriculture or mining b. an article of commerce especially when delivered for shipment <commodities futures> c. a mass-produced unspecialized product <commodity chemicals> <commodity memory chips> 2. a. something useful or valued <that valuable commodity patience>; also thing, entity b. convenience, advantage 3. obsolete quantity, lot 4. a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price 5. one that is subject to ready exchange or exploitation within a market <stars as individuals and as commodities of the film industry — Film Quarterly>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 Commerce an article or raw material that can be bought and sold, esp. a product as opposed to a service. 2 a useful thing. Etymology: ME f. OF commodité or f. L commoditas (as COMMODE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Commodity Com*mod"i*ty, n.; pl. Commodities. [F. commodit['e], fr. L. commoditas. See Commode.] 1. Convenience; accommodation; profit; benefit; advantage; interest; commodiousness. [Obs.] Drawn by the commodity of a footpath. --B. Jonson. Men may seek their own commodity, yet if this were done with injury to others, it was not to be suffered. --Hooker. 2. That which affords convenience, advantage, or profit, especially in commerce, including everything movable that is bought and sold (except animals), -- goods, wares, merchandise, produce of land and manufactures, etc. 3. A parcel or quantity of goods. [Obs.] A commodity of brown paper and old ginger. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(commodities) A commodity is something that is sold for money. (BUSINESS) The government increased prices on several basic commodities like bread and meat. N-COUNT

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Article of merchandise.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A woman's commodity; the private parts of a modest woman, and the public parts of a prostitute.