marketplace

noun

mar·​ket·​place ˈmär-kət-ˌplās 

1

a

: an open square or place in a town where markets or public sales are held

b

: market

the marketplace is the interpreter of supply and demand

2

: the world of trade or economic activity : the everyday world

3

: a sphere in which intangible values compete for acceptance

the marketplace of ideas

Synonyms of marketplace

• commerce
• trade
• traffic

Examples of marketplace in a Sentence

Their products must compete in the marketplace.

The company has struggled to survive in a rapidly changing marketplace.

Recent Examples on the Web

For Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), the operator of the GHA DISCOVERY loyalty program, the challenge is to expand beyond hotels without becoming another sprawling marketplace filled with loosely connected offers. — Jeff Fromm, Forbes.com, 3 Aug. 2026

Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, is sometimes described as the country’s answer to Amazon. — ABC News, 2 Aug. 2026

The 2027 Bolt entered the marketplace in the first quarter of 2026 and is intended to run through to sometime in mid-2027. — New Atlas, 2 Aug. 2026

Today the marketplace hosts livestream auctions across categories including apparel, sneakers, luxury accessories, trading cards, sports memorabilia, watches, beauty products, food and beverages, and clearance merchandise. — Joshua Hong, Fortune, 1 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for marketplace

• aerospace
• anatase
• anyplace
• commonplace
• cyberspace
• database
• diabase
• diastase
• dnase
• elastase
• fireplace
• hyperspace

Kids Definition

marketplace

noun

mar·​ket·​place ˈmär-kət-ˌplās 

1

: an open square or place in a town where markets are held

2

: the world of trade

Legal Definition

marketplace

noun

mar·​ket·​place ˈmär-kət-ˌplās 

: the economic system through which different companies compete with each other to sell their products