industry

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The making of goods in factories on a large scale.

   Heavy industry once provided most of the jobs in this town.

2. 2
   noun

   All the companies and people involved in one type of business.

   She has worked in the music industry for over ten years.

3. 3
   noun

   The quality of working hard and steadily.

   His industry and patience eventually made him successful.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Industry comes from Latin industria, meaning “diligence” or “purposefulness.” Its earliest recorded English sense was “hard work”; the meaning “trade” or “manufacture” appeared by the mid-16th century.

From Middle English industry, industrie, from Old French industrie, from Latin industria (“diligence, activity, industry”), from industrius (“diligent, active, zealous”), from Old Latin indostruus (“diligent, active”); origin unknown. Perhaps from indu (“in”) + ūst-, ūstr-, stem of ūrō (“burn, burn up, consume”, verb), related to Old High German ūstrī (“industry”), Old English andūstrian (“to hate, detest”, literally “to be consumed with zeal”).

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary