# business

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈbɪz.nɪs/ · frequency rank #246

## Definitions
1. A specific commercial enterprise or establishment.
2. A person's occupation, work, or trade.
3. Commercial, industrial, or professional activity.
4. The volume or amount of commercial trade.
5. One's dealings; patronage.
6. Private commercial interests taken collectively.
7. The management of commercial enterprises, or the study of such management.
8. A particular situation or activity.
9. Any activity or objective needing to be dealt with; especially, one of a financial or legal matter.
10. Something involving one personally.
11. Matters that come before a body for deliberation or action.
12. Business class, the class of seating provided by airlines between first class and coach.
13. Ellipsis of stage business (“aspect of acting”).
14. Hollywood, the entertainment industry.
15. Prostitution.
16. The collective noun for a group of ferrets.
17. Something very good; top quality.
18. The act of defecation, or the excrement itself, particularly that of a non-human animal.
19. Disruptive shenanigans.
20. Matters.

## Etymology
From Middle English busines, busynes, businesse, bisynes, from Old English bisiġnes (“business, busyness”), equivalent to busy + -ness. Doublet of busyness. Sense 17 (something very good, top quality), possibly derives from "the bee's knees"

## Easily confused with
- **businesses** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/business-vs-businesses)
- **busiest** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/busiest-vs-business)

## Common misspellings (10)
`bbusiness`, `bsuiness`, `buisness`, `busienss`, `busines`, `businness`, `businses`, `busniess`, `bussiness`, `ubsiness`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/business