emporium

[ em-pawr-ee-uhm, -pohr- ]

noun

, plural em·po·ri·ums, em·po·ri·a [em-, pawr, -ee-, uh, -, pohr, -].

1. a large retail store, especially one selling a great variety of articles.

   Synonyms: bazaar, marketplace, market

2. a place, town, or city of important commerce, especially a principal center of trade:

   New York is one of the world's great emporiums.

emporium

/ ɛmˈpɔːrɪəm /

noun

1. a large and often ostentatious retail shop offering for sale a wide variety of merchandise

Word History and Origins

Origin of emporium¹

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin, from Greek empórion “market, emporium,” equivalent to émporos “merchant,” originally “traveler, passenger” ( em- em- ² + póros “passage, voyage”) + -ion noun suffix of place

Word History and Origins

Origin of emporium¹

C16: from Latin, from Greek emporion, from emporos merchant, from poros a journey

Example Sentences

Maybe he has a real chance to break ground on his very own cannabis delivery app or a brick-and-mortar emporium, and to reach a much higher economic ceiling in the process.

From Vox

“The department store as an all-encompassing emporium is a product of the 20th century and a victim of the 21st,” said Cohen of Columbia Business School.

From Washington Post

Those who endure will understand that the key to success, as it was for the great emporiums of old, is building lasting relationships, customer by customer.

From Fortune

In New York City, the high-end adventure outfitter Abercrombie and Fitch and the kitchen emporiums of big department stores did a bustling business in these new symbols of postwar meat consumption.

From Eater

He turns a visit to a prefab home emporium into a meditation on wealth as a path to spiritual legitimacy.

From The Daily Beast

And then came the day when they walked into the London workshop of a musical instrument emporium.

From The Daily Beast

The around-the-corner Emporium Pies supplies a variety of irresistible desserts.

From The Daily Beast

The firehouse is near the Food Emporium market where Tommy worked as the meat manager before he was called to the FDNY.

From The Daily Beast

It seems like Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium is a film which will live in infamy for quite some time.

From The Daily Beast

Mr. McSweeney had the bad taste to try to stick up our local drug emporium about half an hour ago.

From Project Gutenberg

Shanghai is rapidly becoming the great commercial emporium of China.

From Project Gutenberg

Before the bewildered orphan knew where he was, he found himself in the interior of Ibrahim's emporium.

From Project Gutenberg

It was a most primitive emporium of a most primitive frontier.

From Project Gutenberg

Solano, by the way, is the commercial emporium of this end of the province, for there is not a single shop in Bayombong.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bazaar
• boutique
• co-op
• discount store
• flea market
• mall
• mart
• outlet
• shop
• shopping center
• supermarket