Meaning & use
grocery
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A store where you buy food and other things for the home.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a grocery, the grocery, or groceries. In American English people usually say grocery store for the shop, and grocery on its own is more common in British English.
Patterns
- at the grocery
- go to the grocery
- a grocery store
I stopped at the grocery on my way home to pick up milk and bread.
There is a small grocery at the end of our street that stays open late.
She works at a grocery in the city center.
nounusually plural
Food and other goods bought from a store, especially in the plural groceries.
Grammar: Usually plural: you buy groceries or carry groceries. The singular grocery is rare for the goods themselves.
Patterns
- buy groceries
- carry groceries
- a bag of groceries
Can you help me carry the groceries in from the car?
We spend about $150 a week on groceries.
He put the groceries away in the kitchen.
Word forms
| plural | groceries |
|---|
Common combinations
- grocery store
- The grocery store on the corner closes at nine.
- grocery shopping
- I do my grocery shopping on Saturday mornings.
- grocery bag
- She reused the grocery bag as a trash bag.
- grocery list
- I forgot my grocery list at home, so I bought too much.
- buy groceries
- We need to buy groceries before the weekend.
Synonyms and how they differ
- supermarket
- A supermarket is much larger than a grocery and sells many kinds of goods, not just food.
- corner store
- A corner store is a small local shop, often selling snacks and drinks as well as basic food; it may not be called a grocery.
- convenience store
- A convenience store stays open long hours and sells a small range of food and household items, but it is not mainly a grocery.
Word family
- grocer noun
- A person who sells food and household goods, or the owner of a grocery.
- grocery store noun
- The full, common American name for the shop.
Commonly confused: grocery or grocer?
grocery vs grocer
A grocer is the person or the business, while a grocery is the shop or the goods. You shop at a grocery; a grocer sells the food.
Practice
Choose the best sentence.
Choose one answer.
Groceries is the usual plural for the food you buy. Grocery is not used as an uncountable noun here, grocer means the person or shop owner, and a groceries is not grammatical because groceries is plural.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “grocery”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.