Industry

Pronunciation

Origin

From Old French industrie, from Latin industria ("diligence, activity, industry"), from industrius ("diligent, active, zealous"), from Old Latin indostruus ("diligent, active"); origin unknown. Perhaps from indu ("in") + Å«st-, Å«str-, stem of Å«rÅ ("burn, burn up, consume", verb.), related to Old High German Å«strÄ« ("industry"), Old English andÅ«strian ("to hate, detest", literally to be consumed with zeal).

Full definition of industry

Noun

industry

(countable and uncountable; plural industrys)

(uncountable) The tendency to work persistently.

2011, November 12, International friendly: England 1-0 Spain, England's win was built on industry and discipline, epitomised by the performances of Manchester City's Joleon Lescott in defence and Scott Parker in midfield.

Over the years, their industry and business sense made them wealthy.
(countable, business, economics) Businesses of the same type, considered as a whole.

2013-06-01, End of the peer show, Finance is seldom romantic. But the idea of peer-to-peer lending comes close. This is an industry that brings together individual savers and lenders on online platforms. Those that want to borrow are matched with those that want to lend.

The software and tourism industries continue to grow, while the steel industry remains troubled.
The steel industry has long used blast furnaces to smelt iron.
(uncountable, economics) Businesses that produce goods as opposed to services.

2006, Edwin Black, Internal Combustion Chapter 2, But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.

(in the singular, economics) The sector of the economy consisting of large-scale enterprises.

2013-07-20, Out of the gloom, solar plant schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

There used to be a lot of industry around here, but now the economy depends on tourism.
(European software patent law) Automated production of material goods

2007, Dominique Guellec, The economics of the European patent system, It is a classical and restricted view both of industry (it excludes service sectors, now 70% of the GDP of developed economies)...

Synonyms

(tendency to work persistently) diligence; application
(businesses of the same type) sector; field
(businesses that produce goods) manufacturing