Meaning & use
commodity
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Meanings
nouncountablebusinessfinance
A basic raw material or farm product, such as oil, wheat or copper, that is bought and sold in large amounts.
Grammar: Countable: a commodity, many commodities.
Patterns
- trade in commodities
- commodity prices
Oil is one of the world's most heavily traded commodities.
Coffee is a commodity whose price changes with the harvest.
Farmers watch commodity prices before choosing what to plant.
nouncountable
Anything useful or valuable that can be bought, sold or traded.
Grammar: Often used with a describing word: a valuable commodity.
Patterns
- a valuable commodity
- a scarce commodity
Time is a precious commodity when you have two jobs.
Clean water has become a scarce commodity in the region.
Good advice is a rare commodity.
Word forms
| plural | commodities |
|---|
Common combinations
- commodity prices
- Commodity prices rose sharply after the storm.
- commodity market
- Traders buy wheat on the commodity market.
- valuable commodity
- Information is a valuable commodity today.
- trade in commodities
- The firm trades in commodities such as gold and corn.
- scarce commodity
- Fresh water is a scarce commodity on the island.
- commodity trader
- My cousin works as a commodity trader.
Synonyms and how they differ
- goods
- Goods is a general word for anything sold, while commodity suggests standard raw materials.
- product
- Product can be any item made for sale, but a commodity is usually interchangeable with others of the same type.
- resource
- Resource means something useful that can be used, while commodity stresses that it can be traded.
- merchandise
- Merchandise means finished items sold in shops, rather than raw materials.
Word family
- commodify verb
- to treat something as an item for trade
- commodification noun
- turning something into a product for sale
- commoditize verb
- to make a product so standard that only price matters
- commodities noun
- plural of commodity
Commonly confused: commodity or community? commodity or commode?
commodity vs community
Community is a group of people living together, which looks similar but has nothing to do with trade.
commodity vs commode
A commode is a chest of drawers, or a portable toilet, not a traded good.
Practice
Which of these is the best example of a commodity?
Choose one answer.
Crude oil is a standard, interchangeable raw material traded in bulk. The others are unique or personal items.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “commodity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.