Meaning & use
grey market
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Meanings
nouncountablebusiness
The buying and selling of legal goods through channels the maker has not officially approved.
Grammar: Countable: talk about a grey market or several grey markets for different products.
Patterns
- the grey market in something
- sell something on the grey market
- goods from the grey market
The cameras are genuine, but they were bought on the grey market and carry no local warranty.
Publishers are worried about a growing grey market in cheap imported textbooks.
nounsingularfinance
Trading in a company's shares before they are officially listed on a stock exchange.
Grammar: Usually used with 'the': shares trade in the grey market before the official listing.
Patterns
- trade in the grey market
- the grey market for shares
Investors were already trading the stock in the grey market before the listing day.
Prices in the grey market gave a hint of what the shares would be worth.
Word forms
| plural | grey markets |
|---|
Common combinations
- grey market goods
- Customs officers seized a shipment of grey market goods.
- the grey market in something
- There is a large grey market in imported medicines.
- buy on the grey market
- Many collectors buy on the grey market to get lower prices.
- grey market price
- The grey market price for the phone was far above the official one.
- flood the grey market
- Unsold stock flooded the grey market within weeks.
Synonyms and how they differ
- black market
- Use 'black market' when the goods or the trade itself is illegal; a grey market deals in legal products through unofficial sellers.
- parallel market
- A more neutral business term for the same unofficial trade, often used in economics writing.
Opposites
Word family
- grey-market adjective
- Describing goods sold through unofficial channels, as in 'grey-market imports'.
Commonly confused: grey market or black market?
grey market vs black market
A black market is illegal, while a grey market is legal but not authorized by the manufacturer.
Practice
The watches are authentic, but they were bought on the ___ market, so the warranty is not valid here.
Choose one answer.
'Grey market' fits because the watches are real but sold outside the official channel. 'Black market' would suggest the watches themselves are illegal goods.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “grey market”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.