mercantilism
/ˈmɝkəntɪlɪzəm/noun
mercantilism is a noun meaning “The theory that a nation must always have a positive balance of trade, in the manner that a merchant would operate a shop. Typically this model…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-E-R-C-A-N-T-I-L-I-S-M and has 5 syllables, and it appears about once in every 7 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of mercantilism is mercantilisms.
What does mercantilism mean?
noun
- 1
The theory that a nation must always have a positive balance of trade, in the manner that a merchant would operate a shop. Typically this model presupposes protectionism.
- 2
The theory that holds that the prosperity of a nation depends upon its supply of capital, and that the global volume of trade is unchangeable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce mercantilism?
- UK /ˈmɜːkəntɪlɪzəm/
- US /ˈmɝkəntɪlɪzəm/
- US /ˈmɝkənˌtilˌɪzəm/
Mercantilism has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-mercantilism.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of mercantilism
- mercantilisms plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is mercantilism?
Mercantilism appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 79,518th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Mercantilism in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense the historical economic theory that a nation must always have a positive balance:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | mercantilisme |
| German | Merkantilismus |
| Portuguese | mercantilismo |
| Spanish | mercantilismo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.