com·merce /ˈkɑ(ˌ)mɚ/
 商業,商務,貿易


 Com·merce n.
 Note: (Formerly accented on the second syllable.)
 1. The exchange or buying and selling of commodities; esp. the exchange of merchandise, on a large scale, between different places or communities; extended trade or traffic.
    The public becomes powerful in proportion to the opulence and extensive commerce of private men.   --Hume.
 2. Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity.
    Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser.   --Macaulay.
 3. Sexual intercourse.
 4. A round game at cards, in which the cards are subject to exchange, barter, or trade.
 Chamber of commerce. See Chamber.
 Syn: -- Trade; traffic; dealings; intercourse; interchange; communion; communication.


 Com·merce v. i. [imp. & p. p. Commerced p. pr. & vb. n. Commercing.]
 1. To carry on trade; to traffic. [Obs.]
    Beware you commerce not with bankrupts.   --B. Jonson.
 2. To hold intercourse; to commune.
    Commercing with himself.   --Tennyson.
    Musicians . . . taught the people in angelic harmonies to commerce with heaven.   --Prof. Wilson.

 ◄ ►


 commerce
      n 1: transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of
           supplying commodities (goods and services) [syn: commercialism,
            mercantilism]
      2: the United States federal department that promotes and
         administers domestic and foreign trade (including
         management of the census and the patent office); created
         in 1913 [syn: Department of Commerce, {Commerce
         Department, DoC]
      3: social exchange, especially of opinions, attitudes, etc.