monopoly
noun
Helen M. LyndBarbara A. Leitch
Did you know?
You're probably familiar with the word monopoly, but you may not recognize its conceptual and linguistic relative, the much rarer oligopsony. Both monopoly and oligopsony are ultimately from Greek, although monopoly passed through Latin before being adopted into English. Monopoly comes from the Greek prefix mono-, which means "one," and pōlein, "to sell." Oligopsony derives from the combining form olig-, meaning "few," and the Greek noun opsōnia—"the purchase of victuals"—which is ultimately from the combination of opson, "food," and ōneisthai, "to buy." It makes sense, then, that oligopsony refers to a buyer's market in which the seller is subjected to the potential demands of a limited pool of buyers. Another related word is monopsony, used for a more extreme oligopsony in which there is only a single buyer.
Examples of monopoly in a Sentence
Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 17 Mar. 2025
Recommended Safety As Trump proves unreliable, Europe rushes to firm up defenses on its own
Should Hamas retain its armed wing, any incoming security force would not have a complete monopoly of arms in the strip, raising critical questions over Gaza security.
—Ghada Abdulfattah, The Christian Science Monitor, 14 Mar. 2025
Our main streets should have small businesses that are people in our community who aren't getting crushed by big corporate monopolies.
—Charlotte Alter, TIME, 7 Mar. 2025
When the fighting began in 2022, Russia had a monopoly on EW.
—Tamar Jacoby, Forbes, 27 Feb. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Monopoly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.
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