HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY
To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.
Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.
THE USAGE PANEL
The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.
AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP
The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG
The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.
INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?
Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com
n. 1. The business of buying and selling commodities, products, or services; commerce. See Synonyms at business. 2. A branch or kind of business: the women's clothing trade. 3. The people working in or associated with a business or industry: writers, editors, and other members of the publishing trade. 4. The activity or volume of buying or selling: The trade in stocks was brisk all morning. 5. An exchange of one thing for another: baseball teams making a trade of players. 6. An occupation, especially one requiring skilled labor; craft: the building trades. 7. trades The trade winds. v. trad·ed, trad·ing, trades v.intr. 1. To engage in buying and selling for profit. 2. To make an exchange of one thing for another. 3. To be offered for sale or be sold: Stocks traded at lower prices this morning. 4. To shop or buy regularly: trades at the local supermarket. v.tr. 1. To give in exchange for something else: trade farm products for manufactured goods; will trade my ticket for yours. 2. To buy and sell (stocks, for example). 3. To pass back and forth: We traded jokes. adj. Phrasal Verbs: 1. Of or relating to trade or commerce. 2. Relating to, used by, or serving a particular trade: a trade magazine. 3. Of or relating to books that are primarily published to be sold commercially, as in bookstores. trade down To trade something in for something else of lower value or price: bought a new, smaller car, trading the old one down for economy. trade in To surrender or sell (an old or used item), using the proceeds as partial payment on a new purchase. trade on To put to calculated and often unscrupulous advantage; exploit: children of celebrities who trade on their family names. trade up To trade something in for something else of greater value or price: The value of our house soared, enabling us to trade up to a larger place. [Middle English, course, from Middle Low German.] trada·ble, tradea·ble adj. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
