capitalism.

An economic system in which private ownership and profit-seeking businesses play central roles.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• industrial capitalism
• modern capitalism

On the page

The chapter examines how industrial capitalism changed urban life.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: analysis, evaluation, business. Commonness: moderately common.