# trade

> English word · Noun · IPA /tɹeɪd/ · frequency rank #796

## Definitions
1. The buying and selling of goods and services on a market.
2. A particular instance of buying or selling, or a series of related transactions executed as a single investment.
3. An idea or strategy for an investment on a market.
4. An instance of bartering items in exchange for one another.
5. Those who perform a particular kind of skilled work.
6. Those engaged in an industry or group of related industries.
7. The skilled practice of a practical occupation.
8. An occupation in the secondary sector, as opposed to an agricultural, professional or military one.
9. The business given to a commercial establishment by its customers.
10. Steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the equator.
11. A publication intended for participants in an industry or related group of industries.
12. A masculine man available for casual sex with men, often for pay. (Compare rough trade.)
13. Instruments of any occupation.
14. Short for trade paperback
15. Refuse or rubbish from a mine.
16. A track or trail; a way; a path; passage.
17. A course; a custom; a practice; an occupation.

## Etymology
From Middle English trade (“path, course of conduct”), introduced into English by Hanseatic merchants, from Middle Low German trade (“track, course”), from Old Saxon trada (“spoor, track”), from Proto-West Germanic *tradu, from Proto-Germanic *tradō (“track, way”), and cognate with Old English tredan (“to tread”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dreh₂- (“to tread, walk, step, run”).
Cognate with Dutch trade, tra (“path, trail, course, trade”), German Low German Traad (“track, wagon trail”), Luxembourgish Tratt (“step, pace”), Icelandic tröð (“a lane between fences, enclosure, pen”).

## Easily confused with
- **tre** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tre)
- **true** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-true)
- **tree** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tree)
- **trap** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-trap)
- **tray** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tray)
- **tram** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tram)
- **Tran** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tran)
- **Trav** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-trav)
- **train** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-train)
- **trail** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-trail)
- **trash** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-trash)
- **trans** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-trans)
- **tribe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tribe)
- **traps** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-traps)
- **trait** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-trait)
- **tread** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tread)
- **truce** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-truce)
- **triad** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-triad)
- **tramp** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-tramp)
- **trope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/trade-vs-trope)

## Common misspellings (7)
`rtade`, `tarde`, `tradde`, `traed`, `trdae`, `trrade`, `ttrade`

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