- Britannica.
. . . a means by which the exchange of goods and services takes place as a result of buyers and sellers being in contact with one another, either directly or through mediating agents or institutions.
Markets in the most literal and immediate sense are places in which things are bought and sold. In the modern industrial system, however, the market is not a place; it has expanded to include the whole geographical area in which sellers compete with each other for customers. Alfred Marshall, whose Principles of Economics (first published in 1890) was for long an authority for English-speaking economists, based his definition of the market on that of the French economist A. Cournot:
Economists understand by the term Market, not any particular market place in which things are bought and sold, but the whole of any region in which buyers and sellers are in such free intercourse with one another that the prices of the same goods tend to equality easily and quickly.- Investopedia:
A market is any place where two or more parties can meet to engage in an economic transaction—even those that don't involve legal tender. A market transaction may include goods, services, information, currency, or any combination that passes from one party to another. In short, markets are arenas in which buyers and sellers can gather and interact.
Two parties are generally needed to make a trade. However, a third party is required to introduce competition and balance the market. As such, a market in a state of perfect competition, among other things, is characterized by a high number of active buyers and sellers.
Beyond this broad definition, the term market encompasses various things, depending on the context. For instance, it may refer to the stock market, which is the place where securities are traded. It may also describe a collection of people who wish to buy a specific product or service in a particular place, such as the Brooklyn housing market. Or it could refer to an industry or business sector, such as the global diamond market.
- Wikipedia.
In economics, a market is a composition of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations or infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services (including labour power) to buyers in exchange for money. It can be said that a market is the process by which the prices of goods and services are established. Markets facilitate trade and enable the distribution and allocation of resources in a society. Markets allow any tradeable item to be evaluated and priced. A market emerges more or less spontaneously or may be constructed deliberately by human interaction in order to enable the exchange of rights (cf. ownership) of services and goods. Markets generally supplant gift economies and are often held in place through rules and customs, such as a booth fee, competitive pricing, and source of goods for sale (local produce or stock registration).
