marketplace

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The space, actual or metaphorical, in which a market operates.

   Some high-street retailers were slow to enter the new digital marketplace of the Internet.

2. 2
   noun

   The world of commerce and trade.

   Endorsing the liberal anti-interventionist credo that the marketplace should act as the "site of verification," the advocates of white lead opposed government intervention for the sake of open economic competition, which they claimed revealed its true value and thus should be the sole determinant: "When the railways were built, the stage coaches disppeared; they died a timely death. If zinc white is truly superior to white lead, it will kill us in the marketplace, but the government should not intervene." These were the words of Expert-Bezançon, in his February 1903 deposition to the parliamentary committee examining the bill for banning lead-based pigments in paint.

3. 3
   noun

   A place or sphere for the exchange of anything, such as ideas or fashions.

   marketplace of ideas

4. 4
   noun

   the world of commercial activity where goods and services are bought and sold

5. 5
   noun

   an area in a town where a public mercantile establishment is set up

6. 6
   noun

   An open area in a town housing a public market.

Etymology

From market + place.