grocery

UK/ˈɡɹəʊ.s(ə.)ɹi/US/ˈɡɹoʊ.s(ə.)ɹi/

nounB22 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,511 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: groceries

A grocery is a shop that sells food, and the plural is the food you buy there. Bread, milk, tins, and a bag that splits on the way home.

American English uses it most, where the grocery store is the everyday shop and groceries is the weekly shopping. British English says supermarket or the shops, and grocer for the person. The word came from gross, meaning to sell in bulk, which is what a grocer originally did. Grocery shopping and a grocery list are standard phrases on both sides.

Definitions of grocery

1noungroceryA shop selling food and household goods.B2
“There is a small grocery on the corner.”
2nounboughtThe food and goods bought there.A2
“He carried the groceries in from the car.”

Also practised as

nounFood and household goods bought at a shop.

Where it comes from

Middle English
grocerye
English, today
grocery

From Middle English grocerye, equivalent to grocer + y. Compare gross. a doublet of groceria.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary