Etymology : Middle English industrie skill, employment involving skill, from Middle French, from Latin industria diligence, from industrius diligent, from Old Latin indostruus, perhaps from indu in + -struus ; more at END-, STREW
Pronunciation : in-(")d&s-trE
Function : noun
Date : 15th century
1. manufacturing, trade; group of companies which produce a particular product; diligence, perseverance, tendency to work hard. industry\in"dus*try\ , n.; pl. industries (#). [l. industria, cf. industrius diligent; of uncertain origin: cf. f. industrie.].
2. habitual diligence in any employment or pursuit, either bodily or mental; steady attention to business; assiduity; -- opposed to sloth and idleness; as, industry pays debts, while idleness or despair will increase them. we are more industrious than our forefathers, because in the present times the funds destined for the maintenance of industry are much greater in proportion to those which are likely to be employed in the maintenance of idleness, than they were two or three centuries ago. smith.
3. any department or branch of art, occupation, or business; especially, one which employs much labor and capital and is a distinct branch of trade; as, the sugar industry; the iron industry; the cotton industry.
4. (polit. econ.) human exertion of any kind employed for the creation of value, and regarded by some as a species of capital or wealth; labor.
5. Habitual diligence in any employment or pursuit, either bodily or mental; steady attention to business; assiduity; opposed to sloth and idleness; as, industry pays debts, while idleness or despair will increase them.
6. Any department or branch of art, occupation, or business; especially, one which employs much labor and capital and is a distinct branch of trade; as, the sugar industry; the iron industry; the cotton industry.
7. Human exertion of any kind employed for the creation of value, and regarded by some as a species of capital or wealth; labor. the organized action of making of goods and services for sale; "American industry is making increased use of computers to control production" the people or companies engaged in a particular kind of commercial enterprise; "each industry has its own trade publications".
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. disapproval 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.
11. Industry is the fact of working very hard. No one doubted his ability, his industry or his integrity. see also:
captain of industry, cottage industry, service industry. Group of productive organizations that produce or supply goods, services, or sources of income. In economics, industries are customarily classified as primary, secondary, and tertiary; secondary industries are further classified as heavy and light. Primary industry includes agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, quarrying, and extracting minerals. Secondary or manufacturing industry processes the raw materials supplied by primary industries into consumer goods, or further processes goods from other secondary industries, or builds capital goods used to manufacture consumer and nonconsumer goods; secondary industry also includes energy-producing industries and the construction industry. Tertiary or service industry includes banking, finance, insurance, investment, and real estate services; wholesale, retail, and resale trade; transportation, information, and communications services; professional, consulting, legal, and personal services; tourism, hotels, restaurants, and entertainment; repair and maintenance services; education and teaching; and health, social welfare, administrative, police, security, and defense services. Acheulean industry fishing industry Mousterian industry Oldowan industry pharmaceutical industry service industry Solutrean industry stone tool industry Imperial Chemical Industries PLC B.A.T Industries PLC 1976-98.