Meaning & use
commercial contract
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountablelegal
A legally binding agreement between businesses, setting out what each side will supply, do or pay in a trade deal.
Grammar: Countable: sign a commercial contract, several commercial contracts.
Patterns
- a commercial contract between X and Y
- a commercial contract for something
The two companies signed a commercial contract for the supply of steel.
A lawyer reviewed the commercial contract before the manager approved it.
Breaking a commercial contract can lead to heavy penalties.
Word forms
| plural | commercial contracts |
|---|
Common combinations
- sign a commercial contract
- They signed a commercial contract after months of talks.
- negotiate a commercial contract
- Her team negotiated a commercial contract with a major retailer.
- breach a commercial contract
- The supplier breached the commercial contract by delivering late.
- draft a commercial contract
- The firm drafted a commercial contract to cover the delivery schedule.
- terms of a commercial contract
- The terms of the commercial contract include payment within thirty days.
Synonyms and how they differ
- business agreement
- A business agreement may be informal or unwritten, while commercial contract implies a formal binding document.
- trade deal
- A trade deal is often between countries or large groups, while a commercial contract is between particular businesses.
- supply agreement
- A supply agreement is a specific type of commercial contract about delivering goods.
Opposites
Word family
- commerce noun
- the buying and selling of goods and services
- commercial adjective
- relating to business and profit
- contract noun
- a written agreement that can be enforced by law
- contractual adjective
- relating to a contract
- commercially adverb
- in a way that relates to business
Commonly confused: commercial contract or consumer contract?
commercial contract vs consumer contract
A consumer contract is made between a business and an ordinary customer, while a commercial contract is made between businesses.
Practice
Two companies agree in writing on prices and delivery dates. This document is a _____.
Choose one answer.
A written agreement between businesses on trade terms is a commercial contract. The other documents serve entirely different purposes.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “commercial contract”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.