Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French commerce, from Latin commercium.
Noun
commerce (countable and uncountable, plural commerces)
- (business) The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; esp. the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.
- Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.
- Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him wiser.
- (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.
- An eighteenth-century French card game in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.
Synonyms
- trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange; communion; communication.
Derived terms
- chamber of commerce
- commercial
- e-commerce
Verb
commerce (third-person singular simple present commerces, present participle commercing, simple past and past participle commerced)
- (intransitive, archaic) To carry on trade; to traffic.
- (intransitive, archaic) To hold conversation; to communicate.
Credits
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