From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcommoditycom‧mod‧i‧ty /kəˈmɒdəti $ kəˈmɑː-/ ●○○ noun (plural commodities) [countable] 1 PEa product that is bought and sold agricultural commodities Commodity prices fell sharply.► see thesaurus at product2 formalTHING a useful quality or thing Time is a precious commodity.COLLOCATIONSadjectivesan important commodityCrude oil is the world’s most important commodity.an expensive commodityConsumers began to find that they could afford more expensive commodities.a valuable/precious commodityLand is an extremely valuable commodity.a rare/scarce commoditySoap was a scarce commodity during the war.a hot commodity (=one that a lot of people want to buy)Web domains ending in .com became hot commodities.a saleable/tradeable commodity (=one that can be sold or traded)Land is a freely saleable commodity.agricultural commoditiesThe falling prices of agricultural commodities such as coffee have severely affected the economy.industrial commoditiesSales of the old industrial commodities of iron and coal are still important.commodity + NOUNcommodity pricesCommodity prices are very high in the UK.a commodity marketCoffee is facing the deepest crisis in a global commodity market since the great depression of the 30s.
Examples from the Corpus
commodity• Food shopping takes time, a commodity of which most of us have precious little.• He might want her as a doctor, but as a woman, it seemed, she was a disposable commodity.• But divinity is a fragile commodity.• Other commodity exchanges said they would keep normal hours.• A lighter is a rare commodity here.• Most alarmingly, the show suggests that industrialism, valuing commodities above itself, promoted a ghoulish worship of death.• Of course many programmes of regional co-operation exist, but unlike oil most Third World commodities are no longer essential to the West.From Longman Business Dictionarycommoditycom‧mod‧i‧ty /kəˈmɒdətikəˈmɑː-/ noun (plural commodities) [countable]1FINANCE a product that can be sold to make a profit, especially one in its basic form before it has been used or changed in an industrial process. Examples of commodities are farm products and metalsThe company trades worldwide, buying and selling basic commodities such as timber, coal and cement.Rice is the country’s principle export commodity.2 (also commodity product)MARKETING a product or service that is difficult to show as being different from similar products or services offered by competitorsPCs have become commodities.Origin commodity (1400-1500) French commodité, from Latin commoditas, from commodus; → COMMODE 