cartel
noun
Simple meaning
A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kahrtehlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kɑɹˈtɛl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
economics
A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A group of businesses or nations that collude to limit competition within an industry or market.
Used this way, cartel is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in finance or economics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Finance/economics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An illicit cartel formed to control the production and distribution of narcotic drugs.
A drug cartel in Colombia.
A cartel of companies or nations formed to control the production and distribution of oil.
A drug cartel that seized control of cocaine production in Colombia in 1993.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.