Home > B Words > black market

black market

Definitions of Black Market

  1. (noun) The illegal market for goods and services that are price regulated, rationed, or restricted.
  2. (noun) The location where illegal buying and selling occurs.

Examples of Black Market

Black Market Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: black mar·ket

Audio Pronunciation

– American English
– British English

Phonetic Spelling

  • American English – /blAk mAHR-kuht/
  • British English – /blAk mAHk-it/

International Phonetic Alphabet

  • American English – /blæk ˈmɑrkət/
  • British English – /blæk ˈmɑːkɪt/

Usage Notes

Additional Information

Related Terms


Works Consulted

Bilton, Tony, Kevin Bonnett, Pip Jones, David Skinner, Michelle Stanworth, and Andrew Webster. 1996. Introductory Sociology. 3rd ed. London: Macmillan.

Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Myles. 2010. A Dictionary of Economics. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Law, Jonathan, ed. 2010. A Dictionary of Accounting. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Princeton University. 2010. WordNet. (https://wordnet.princeton.edu/).

Turner, Bryan S., ed. 2006. The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation. (https://en.wikipedia.org/).

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Black Market

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2018. “black market.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved March 29, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/black-market/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

black market. (2018). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/black-market/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2018. “black market.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed March 29, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/black-market/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“black market.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2018. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/black-market/>.