stock

The word “stock” means the goods a shop or business keeps available to sell. In plain terms, depending on context: goods for sale, a company share, a cooking base, or "standard/unmodified.".

“Stock” is pronounced stok (/stɑk/ in IPA).

Here is “stock” used in a sentence: “The store is out of stock on that size.”

Depending on how it is used, “stock” can be a noun, a verb and an adjective.

The word “stock” comes from Old English. From Old English stocc, "tree trunk" — the sense of "supply" or "goods" grew out of the idea of a stockpile or storehouse.

“Stock” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B2 level.

“Stock” has 5 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: the goods a shop or business keeps available to sell.

The two overlap and are often used interchangeably. "Stock" usually means the finished goods a shop keeps ready to sell to customers. "Inventory" is a broader term covering all goods a business holds, including raw materials and work in progress. In everyday shop talk, they mean much the same thing.

"Out of stock" means a shop or business has temporarily sold all of a particular item and has none left to sell. The product still exists and will usually be reordered, unlike "discontinued," which means it will not return. "In stock" means it is available to buy now.

In this sense, "stock" means the goods a shop has for sale. "Stocks," by contrast, usually refers to shares — units of ownership in a company traded on the stock market. The two meanings are unrelated, so context matters: a warehouse holds stock, an investor buys stocks.

The tins of soup on a supermarket shelf, the clothes hanging in a boutique, and the boxes of spare parts in a warehouse are all stock. Anything a business keeps on hand ready to sell to customers counts — from a single item to an entire storeroom.