supply chain

noun

plural supply chains

: the chain of processes, businesses, etc. by which a commodity is produced and distributed : the companies, materials, and systems involved in manufacturing and delivering goods

The pandemic has disrupted nearly every aspect of the global supply chain—that's the usually invisible pathway of manufacturing, transportation and logistics that gets goods from where they are manufactured, mined or grown to where they are going. At the end of the chain is another company or a consumer who has paid for the finished product.

—Peter S. Goodman

Everyday life in the United States is acutely dependent on the perpetual motion of the supply chain, in which food and medicine and furniture and clothing all compete for many of the same logistical resources. … [W]hen a finite supply of packaging can't keep up with demand, when there aren't enough longshoremen or truck drivers or postal workers, when a container ship gets wedged sideways in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes—the effects ripple outward for weeks or months, emptying shelves and raising prices in ways that can seem random. All of a sudden, you can't buy kettlebells or canned seltzer.

—Amanda Mull

Examples of supply chain in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Beijing controls the supply chain for many obscure minerals that are critical components of smartphones, cars and weapons. —Evelyn Cheng, CNBC, 18 May 2026

Southeast Asia doesn’t have the luxury to bet its economic future on a 6,000-mile supply chain that passes through a single, 21-mile-wide chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz. —Ken Silverstein, Forbes.com, 17 May 2026

Trump’s close advisers believe that China could invade Taiwan in the next five years, Axios reported, threatening the chip supply chain that powers the US’ AI boom. —Tasneem Nashrulla, semafor.com, 17 May 2026

This has pushed up transportation costs and disrupted supply chains in Somalia, which depends largely on food imports to meet internal food requirements. —Freddie Clayton, NBC news, 17 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for supply chain

• aeroplane
• appertain
• ascertain
• capitaine
• cassegrain
• cellophane
• chatelaine
• counterpane
• entertain
• halothane
• hurricane
• hyperplane