trade

The word “trade” means to buy and sell goods, services, or securities. In plain terms, buying, selling, or exchanging goods — or a skilled manual occupation.

“Trade” is pronounced trayd (/tɹeɪd/ in IPA).

Here is “trade” used in a sentence: “The two countries agreed to trade freely without tariffs.”

Words with a similar meaning to “trade” include exchange, merchandise, traffic, truck and wrixle.

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

The word “trade” comes from German. From Middle Low German trade, meaning "track" or "course," brought into English by Hanseatic merchants — the sense shifted from a merchant's regular route to commerce itself.

“Trade” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Trade” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: to buy and sell goods, services, or securities.

Trading and investing both involve buying and selling, but they differ in time and intent. Traders buy and sell frequently — sometimes within a single day — aiming to profit from short-term price moves. Investors buy and hold for months or years, seeking gradual, long-term growth. Trading is more active and typically carries more risk.

Both involve exchanging goods or services, but the key difference is money. In trade, people usually buy and sell using money as the medium of exchange. In barter, goods and services are swapped directly for one another with no money involved — for example, trading a bag of apples for a loaf of bread.

Trade takes many forms. Domestic trade happens within one country, while international trade crosses borders through imports and exports. It can also be split into wholesale trade, selling in bulk to businesses, and retail trade, selling directly to consumers. In finance, trade refers to buying and selling shares and other securities.

A simple example is a shop buying goods from a supplier and selling them on to customers at a profit. On a larger scale, one country might export cars and import oil. In financial markets, trade means buying and selling shares, currencies, or commodities, hoping to gain from changes in their price.