Export

How to spell export

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce export

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does export mean?

1. verbTo send goods or services to another country for sale.
2. nounA product or service sold and sent to another country.

Export in a sentence

• verb

  The company plans to export machinery to several Asian markets.

• noun

  Coffee remains the country's most valuable export.

• verb

  Local farmers export most of their cheese to France.

• noun

  The trade report tracked the rise in every major export.

Where does export come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Export traces back to the Latin verb exportare, formed from ex, meaning 'out', and portare, meaning 'to carry'. Literally, then, it described the act of carrying something out, especially out of a country. English adopted it in the early 1400s, at first as a verb for carrying goods away, and by the 1600s it had settled firmly into the language of trade for sending merchandise abroad. The noun sense, naming the goods themselves or the activity of selling them overseas, grew alongside the verb. The same portare root carries through a whole family of English words, including 'import', 'transport', 'portable', and 'porter', so the spelled-out 'port' in the middle is a reliable anchor and rarely the part that trips writers.

How the word is built

• ex- (out)
• port (from Latin portare, to carry)