cartel.

1. A group of otherwise separate producers coordinating prices, output, or market access.

2. An organized criminal group or alliance, especially one controlling drug distribution.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• price-fixing cartel
• oil cartel

On the page

Investigators uncovered a price-fixing cartel among suppliers.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Singular cartel; plural cartels. 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, social science. Commonness: moderately common.