vendor
Americannoun
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law a person who sells something, esp real property
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another name for vending machine
Usage
What is a vendor? A vendor is a person or business that sells something, as in The school lunch really improved after it changed food vendors. A vendor is also a machine that dispenses items after you put money into it. It’s more often called a vending machine. Example: The vendor told me that the box has a scratch, so she’s selling it cheap.
Etymology
Origin of vendor
1585–95; < Anglo-French vendo ( u ) r < Latin venditor. See vend, -or 2
Explanation
If you are a vendor, it means you’re a person selling something, whether it’s hot dogs from a food cart or computer software for a tech company. The word vendor comes from the Latin word vendere, meaning “to sell.” Vendor is a name for people who sell things on the street, such as a hot dog vendor, but it can describe those who sell any kind of goods or services, especially a specialized product. A store at the mall isn't usually called a vendor, but you could use the word to describe the person or group that supplies the store with special products or services.
Vocabulary lists containing vendor
100 SAT Words Beginning with "V"
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The Lemonade War
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The Color of My Words
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
We caught a young plastic toy vendor, engrossed on his phone, sitting on a concrete pillar that recorded 56.9C.
From BBC • Jun. 15, 2026
Begum and other women in the village earned only pennies selling their wares after borrowing to buy supplies from a local vendor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
What used to be a vendor relationship is becoming something closer to direct ownership, or at minimum, long-term control over supply that was previously left to market pricing.
From MarketWatch • May 27, 2026
Graciela Zuleta, an Indigenous vegetable vendor, now asks $1.10 for a kilo of tomatoes to cover her costs, up from $0.40 before the crisis.
From Barron's • May 20, 2026
“As much biryani as we can have,” I said, handing over our cash to the vendor.
From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
