Commerce

How to spell commerce

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce commerce

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does commerce mean?

1. nounThe buying and selling of goods and services, especially on a large scale.

Commerce in a sentence

• Online commerce now accounts for a large share of retail sales.

• The new tariffs disrupted commerce between the two countries.

Where does commerce come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Commerce comes from the Latin commercium, which meant 'trade' or 'trafficking in goods'. That noun was built from com- meaning 'together' and merx (in its stem form merc-) meaning 'merchandise' or 'goods for sale', so the literal idea was people coming together to exchange wares. The word passed into English through Old French commerce in the late 1500s, keeping its core sense of buying and selling on a large scale. The same merc- root sits inside a whole family of familiar words, including merchant, merchandise, market, and even mercenary, all tied to the notion of trade and payment. The Romans personified that root in Mercury, the god of merchants and commerce, which is a handy reminder that the spelling keeps the c before the final -e rather than an s.

How the word is built

• com- (together, with)
• merc (trade, merchandise)
• -e