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

• 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

But the underlying rails that power payments haven’t kept pace with the fluidity of today’s digital marketplaces. —Paul Marcantonio, Forbes.com, 2 July 2025

More than 50 products were subject to recall notices in June, with the online marketplace revealing the details of each on its website. —Chloe Mayer, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 June 2025

Some Nintendo products remained on the site, but they were listed by independent merchants who sell their goods on Amazon’s sprawling online marketplace. —Glen Luke Flanagan, Fortune, 30 June 2025

The digital services tax is a 3% tax on revenue earned in the country from large online marketplace services, online advertising services, social media services and certain sales of user data. —Ted Johnson, Deadline, 30 June 2025

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