cartel
Other forms: cartels
When groups band together to control the supply of a product for their best interests, that’s called a cartel. If you and the other kids running lemonade stands form a cartel, you can force up the price of lemonade.
The word cartel originally referred to political parties that joined forces to promote a common cause. Over the years, cartel took on a decidedly negative connotation, and now it’s more likely to describe organizations that join together to limit supply of a product to force prices to remain high. You might read about an international drug cartel or a cartel of natural gas producers. To correctly pronounce the word cartel, put the accent on the second syllable: “car TEL.”
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a consortium of independent organizations formed to limit competition by controlling the production and distribution of a product or servicesynonyms: combine, corporate trust, trusttypes:drug cartelan illicit cartel formed to control the production and distribution of narcotic drugsoil cartela cartel of companies or nations formed to control the production and distribution of oilOPEC, Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countriesan organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the production and sale of petroleumtype of:
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
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