Meaning & use
cheesemonger
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
Someone whose trade is selling cheese, often a shopkeeper who knows a great deal about different kinds.
Grammar: Countable: a cheesemonger, two cheesemongers.
Patterns
- a local cheesemonger
- buy something from a cheesemonger
The cheesemonger let me taste three kinds of goat cheese before I chose.
Our neighborhood cheesemonger can recommend a wine to go with it.
She trained for two years to become a cheesemonger.
Word forms
| plural | cheesemongers |
|---|
Common combinations
- local cheesemonger
- Ask your local cheesemonger which cheese is ripest.
- ask the cheesemonger
- Ask the cheesemonger for something creamy but mild.
- a cheesemonger's shop
- A cheesemonger's shop smells wonderfully sharp and nutty.
- artisan cheesemonger
- The artisan cheesemonger sources cheese from small farms.
- work as a cheesemonger
- He left banking to work as a cheesemonger.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cheese seller
- Cheese seller is plain and general, while cheesemonger suggests a specialist who knows and cares about cheese.
- fromager
- Fromager is the French term and also suggests a cheese maker or expert, so it sounds more exotic than cheesemonger.
- grocer
- A grocer sells many foods, while a cheesemonger sells mainly cheese.
- dairyman
- A dairyman works with milk products at a farm or dairy, while a cheesemonger mostly sells to customers.
Word family
Commonly confused: cheesemonger or warmonger?
cheesemonger vs warmonger
A warmonger is someone who urges war, a very different use of -monger, which in cheesemonger just means seller.
Practice
A cheesemonger would most likely help you to:
Choose one answer.
A cheesemonger sells cheese and advises on it. The other options are tasks for different professions.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cheesemonger”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.