monopoly

UK/məˈnɒpəli/US/məˈnɑpəli/

nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,033 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: monopolies

A monopoly is one company controlling a whole market with no competitors. A near monopoly, break up the monopoly, monopoly power.

Monopolies raise prices and reduce choice, which is why competition law exists to prevent and break them. A natural monopoly is a market where one supplier is genuinely more efficient — water pipes, rail track — and is regulated instead. A monopsony is the mirror image, with one buyer. Note monopolise; and that Monopoly the board game was designed to demonstrate exactly why monopolies are bad, which nobody remembers.

Definitions of monopoly

1nounmonopolyOne company controlling a whole market.C1
“For years the company had a monopoly on the city's buses, so fares kept rising.”

monopoly is a market position.

Remember it

The Greek parts are alone and to sell. A monopoly is the market left standing alone: everyone else has already stopped selling.

hooks ontoalone sell

Where it comes from

Greek monopolion is monos, single, plus polein, to sell — a single seller. The word is exactly its definition, which is unusual and useful.

Ancient Greek
μονοπώλιον — a right of exclusive sale
Latin
monopōlium
English, today
monopoly

Built from

μόνος · Ancient Greek — sole
πωλέω · Ancient Greek — to barter, sell

From Latin monopōlium, from Ancient Greek μονοπώλιον (“a right of exclusive sale”), from μόνος (“sole”) + πωλέω (“to barter, sell”). by surface analysis, mono- + -poly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Work & Careers

Practise this word

monopoly in the wild

In economics, a monopoly is a single seller.
Monopoly
Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a monopoly.
Monopoly
In that case, it is likely that a single company (monopoly) or small number of companies (oligopoly), will serve most or all of the market's customers.
Natural monopoly
The transmission lines used in the transportation of electricity, or natural gas pipelines, have natural monopoly characteristics.
Public utility
A monopoly can occur when it finds the best way to minimize its costs through economies of scale to the point where other companies cannot compete with it.
Public utility

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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