Economic

How to spell economic

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce economic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does economic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the economy, money, trade, or the system by which a country produces and uses wealth.
2. adjectiveProducing enough profit or value to be worth the cost; financially viable.

Economic in a sentence

• The report warned of a sharp economic downturn next year.

• The old mine was no longer economic once prices fell.

• Government policy aims to support long-term economic growth.

• The bus route was scrapped because it was not economic to operate.

Where does economic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the ancient Greek oikonomia, the art of running a household, built from oikos meaning 'house' and nomos meaning 'management' or 'law'. The related adjective oikonomikos described anything to do with that domestic management. Latin took the term as oeconomicus, and French passed it into English in the 1500s, at first in this older household sense. Over the 1700s, as thinkers began studying the wealth of whole nations rather than single homes, the meaning widened to cover trade, money, and the production of goods across society. The same oikos root sits inside 'ecology', which is why the spelling keeps that 'eco-' opening rather than the 'eko-' sound it carries.

How the word is built

• eco- (from Greek oikos: household)
• nom (from nomos: management, law)
• -ic (adjective suffix)