Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to merchants or trade.
- adj. Of or relating to mercantilism.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of or pertaining to merchants, or the traffic carried on by merchants; having to do with trade or commerce; trading; commercial.
- Characteristic of the business of merchants; in accord with business principles.
- Synonyms Mercantile, Commercial. Commercial is the broader term, including the other. Mercantile applies only to the actual purchase and sale of goods, according to one's line of business; the mercantile class in a community comprises all such as are actually in the business of buying and selling. Commercial covers the whole theory and practice of commerce, home or foreign : as, the British are a commercial people; commercial usages, honor, law. The word is applicable wherever the more varied activities of commerce are concerned.
Wiktionary
- adj. Concerned with the exchange of goods for profit
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to merchants, or the business of merchants; having to do with trade, or the buying and selling of commodities; commercial.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. relating to or characteristic of trade or traders
- adj. profit oriented
- adj. of or relating to the economic system of mercantilism
Etymologies
- French, from Italian, from mercante, merchant, from Latin mercāns, mercant-, from present participle of mercārī, to trade, from merx, merc-, merchandise, goods. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Now, FHA insured about 30% of home purchases as good as 20% of refinanced mortgages in mercantile 2009.”
“Not many cities, unfortunately, have been means to announce such certain mercantile headlines in the stream business climate.”
“It is likely, then, that he had no source of income other than family money, although his adult male relatives were all engaged in mercantile operations, the navy, or the professions. back”
“This is one of my favorite if that's the word mercantile ghosts.”
“The butter factory, recently incorporated, is one of the manufacturing enterprises which flourish, and for the past twenty-five years Etna has not been behind her neighboring villages in mercantile enterprise or in the educational advantages furnished by her excellent school.”
“You will readily discern that, what with the public market and municipal headquarters, the two leading city churches, and the main mercantile domain that centres up on King Street, this central sector clearly focuses the civic and business life of the new city.”
“The boys will find their life work on the farm, or in mercantile or manufacturing establishments.”
“At the same time I have the honor to bring to the knowledge of your excellency that the German authorities will detain French mercantile vessels in German ports, but they will release them if, within forty-eight hours, they are assured of complete reciprocity.”
“In all the thirteen years of her non-government, we find no further protection of women than for the sake of that which is always made the one plea of protection in mercantile England – property: and we are rather startled than satisfied, when we read, that under Queen Anne, one Haagen Swensden was tried and executed "for stealing and marrying Mistress Pleasant Rawlins," because she was an heiress.”
A Letter to the Queen on Lord Chancellor Cransworth's Marriage and Divorce Bill
“In a new country, where there is no great competition in mercantile business, and money is scarce, the power and profits of store-keepers are very great.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mercantile’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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probablyankita's list
Words are all I have to take your heart away
apartheid, techno-klutz, logorrheic, gordian knot, anodyne, odor of sanctity, finders keepers, foot-in-mouth dis..., dutch uncle, masquerade, smoke signals, furtive glance and 320 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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RPG
rogue, alchemy, lady's favor, trollkin, herald's call, critical hit, insect plague, alteration, conjuration, destruction, mysticism, illusion and 65 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
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ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Having: C; m; e
Goodies pulled from a list I've compiled of most-every word having these letters in common — It's going take to take a long, long time to actually get through (and I may want to extend it lat...
chamber, chimney, compesce, imperch, ipom�ic, lambency, premier cru, recumbence, simnelcake, succumbence, umbeschew, almacle and 631 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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another yet
anneal, copepod, cuckoo, fathead, intone, patter, cabriole, knickknack, boodle, kit, estrange, forebode and 209 more...
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Mike
M
malefaction, metonymy, malapropism, mawkish, morpheme, mercantile, moxie, mellifluous, memorat, mugwump, minatory, mendacious and 25 more...
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set 14
from 66 to 70
conciliatory, wean, intractable, fissure, recant, asunder, stodgy, piety, ambulatory, pharisaical, philology, primordial and 79 more...
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bemmie74's Words
bricoleur, lackadaisical, ameliorate, erudite, eleemosynary, mercantile, antidisestablishm..., onomatopoetic, catachresis, anacoluthon, zeugma, syllepsis and 19 more...
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favourite words of all time
erudite, perspicacious, betwixt, ennui, esoteric, quixotic, capricious, acerbic, nadir, zenith, paraphernalia, myriad and 77 more...
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difficult-list30
mausoleum, maverick, mawkish, mealy-mouthed, mediate, meek, melee, mellifluous, memorialize, menagerie, mendacious, mendicant and 18 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mercantile.

slumry In my hometown, the local mercantile closed in the 1950s, giving way to more modern sorts of stores. I wonderful if general stores were commonly called mercantiles then, or if the one I briefly knew was an anomaly. Jul 17, 2007