Other forms: exchanged, exchanges, exchanging
To exchange is to give one thing and get another back. Swapping shirts at the end of a match, exchanging phone numbers at a party, taking a jumper back to the shop and exchanging it for a bigger size.
It works on objects, on money, and on things that are not objects at all: they exchanged glances, we exchanged a few words on the stairs, an exchange of fire. The pattern is exchange something FOR something, and in exchange for is the set phrase — he fed the cat in exchange for a lift to the station. As a noun it names a trading place (the stock exchange), the rate at which currencies swap (the exchange rate), a short sharp argument (a heated exchange), and a term spent at a school abroad (an exchange student). Exchange is a shade more formal than swap, and it reaches further: you can exchange looks, but you cannot swap them.
1verbexchangeTo give something and receive something else in return.~10%
“They exchanged addresses and promised to write.”
2verbtakeTo take goods back to a shop and get different ones instead.~2%
“She exchanged the shirt for one in a larger size.”
3nounactThe act of giving one thing and getting another.~20%
“It was a fair exchange: my tent for his stove.”
4nounshortA short conversation or argument between two people.~2%
“There was a sharp exchange between the two lawyers.”
5nounplaceA place where shares or currencies are bought and sold.~66%
“Shares fell sharply on the London exchange.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 19 sentences found in the wild and placed 19 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: swap, trade
The word came through Middle English eschaunge from Anglo-Norman and Old French eschange, and behind that Vulgar Latin *excambiō, built from Latin ex and cambiō. English spelled it with es- for centuries; the spelling was later rebuilt on the Latin ex-, and the pronunciation followed the new spelling rather than the other way round.
Latin
ex
Vulgar Latin
*excambiō
Old French
eschange
Anglo-Norman
eschaunge
Middle English
eschaunge
English, today
exchange
From Middle English eschaunge, borrowed from Anglo-Norman eschaunge, from Old French eschange (whence modern French échange), from the verb eschanger, from Vulgar Latin excambiō (from Latin ex with Latin cambiō). Spelling later changed on the basis of ex-, with pronunciation following. by surface analysis, ex- + change.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA