different between grocery vs necessaries

English

Etymology

From French grosserie (“wholesale”). Compare gross.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?????s(?)?i/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???o?s(?)?i/, /???o??(?)?i/

Noun

grocery (plural groceries)

1. (usually groceries) retail foodstuffs and other household supplies.
   • 1776: Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

     Where ten thousand pounds can be employed in the grocery trade, the wages of the grocer's labour make but a very trifling addition...

   • 1850, Thomas Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets, The present time

     Did not cotton spin itself, beef grow, and groceries and spiceries come in from the East and the West, quite comfortably by the side of shams?

2. A shop or store that sells groceries; a grocery store.
   • 1854: Henry David Thoreau, Walden

     I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery, the bar-room, the post-office, and the bank...

Usage notes

When referring to goods, the singular form is primarily used attributively, as in a grocery bill, a grocery list, etc. The plural form, groceries, is much more frequently used to refer to actual goods, especially in the US.

Synonyms

• (retail foodstuffs and household supplies): commodities, general goods, groceries, packaged goods
• (store that sells groceries): general store, grocery store, market, supermarket

Related terms

• greengrocer
• grocer
• groceries

Translations

Verb

grocery (third-person singular simple present groceries, present participle grocerying, simple past and past participle groceried)

1. (intransitive) To go grocery shopping.
2. (transitive) To furnish with groceries.

References

English

Noun

necessaries pl (plural only)

1. Necessary or indispensable items.

   • These exclamations continued till they were interrupted by the lady, who now proceeded to execute the commission given her by her brother, and gave orders for providing all necessaries for the child, appointing a very good room in the house for his nursery.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     Mechanically he returned home, gathered together a few small necessaries and special treasures he was fond of, and put them in a satchel; acting with slow deliberation, moving about the room like a sleep-walker; listening ever with parted lips.

Synonyms

• essentials

Related terms

• necessities

Anagrams

• necessaires, nécessaires