Meaning & use
trade terms
Last updated
Meanings
nounplural
the conditions agreed for buying and selling goods, such as price, payment, and delivery
Grammar: Always plural: 'trade terms are', not 'trade terms is'.
Patterns
- agree on trade terms
- offer trade terms
- trade terms with someone
The two companies finally agreed on trade terms after long negotiations.
Our trade terms include a ten percent discount for large orders.
They refused to sign the contract because the trade terms were too strict.
nounplural
special words and expressions used by people in a particular job or industry
Grammar: Plural: 'trade terms' refers to the vocabulary of a trade.
Patterns
- use trade terms
- understand trade terms
The manual is full of trade terms that ordinary customers may not know.
New workers have to learn the trade terms used in the kitchen.
Common combinations
- agree on trade terms
- The buyer and seller agreed on trade terms before the shipment.
- favorable trade terms
- Small businesses often struggle to get favorable trade terms.
- standard trade terms
- The contract uses standard trade terms for international sales.
- negotiate trade terms
- They spent weeks negotiating trade terms with their supplier.
Synonyms and how they differ
- terms of trade
- Terms of trade is an economics term about the ratio of export to import prices; trade terms are the conditions of a business deal.
- commercial terms
- Commercial terms is similar but can be broader, covering any business agreement, not just buying and selling goods.
Commonly confused: trade terms or terms of trade?
trade terms vs terms of trade
Terms of trade measures a country's export prices against its import prices; trade terms are the conditions for a specific sale.
Practice
The phrase 'trade terms' is usually used to talk about:
Choose one answer.
Trade terms most commonly means the conditions of a sale, such as price and delivery. Option 0 is a less common sense; option 2 describes 'terms of trade'; option 3 is unrelated.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “trade terms”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.