emporium

/ɛmˈpɔriəm/

/ɛmˈpɔriəm/

Other forms: emporia; emporiums

An emporium is a large store that sells a variety of merchandise. You can call a department store, with its many different departments, an emporium.

Any retail store that separates its goods into different areas — like "men's hats" and "kids' shoes" and "household goods" — can be called an emporium. Almost every small city in the United States used to have at least one emporium on its main street, although today you might refer to a big box store or a shopping mall as an emporium. Emporium is a Latin word, rooted in the Greek emporion, "trading place or market," from emporos, "merchant or traveler."

Definitions of emporium

1. noun

   a large shop organized into sections that sell different types of items; commonly part of a retail chain
   synonyms: department store

   type of:

   mercantile establishment, outlet, retail store, sales outlet

   a place of business for retailing goods