Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - industry

(industries) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Industry is the work and processes involved in collecting raw materials, and making them into products in factories. British industry suffers through insufficient investment in research. N-UNCOUNT 2. A particular industry consists of all the people and activities involved in making a particular product or providing a particular service. ...the motor vehicle and textile industries. N-COUNT: oft n N 3. If you refer to a social or political activity as an industry, you are criticizing it because you think it involves a lot of people in unnecessary or useless work. Some Afro-Caribbeans are rejecting the whole race relations industry... N-COUNT: usu sing, the supp N c darkgreen]disapproval 4. Industry is the fact of working very hard. (FORMAL) No one doubted his ability, his industry or his integrity. N-UNCOUNT 5. see also captain of industry, cottage industry, service industry