purchasing

/ˈpʌrtʃɪsɪŋ/

/ˈpʌtʃəsɪŋ/

If you are responsible for buying all the candy for a school sale, you are responsible for purchasing the candy. To make the job easier, you might start a purchasing committee. Purchasing is buying.

The word purchasing sounds more official than buying, but it means the same thing — acquiring something by paying for it. In larger businesses, the purchasing department or just "purchasing" is an entire section of the company dedicated to doing the buying. If you lead this department, you might joke that your job is Top Shopper.

Definitions of purchasing

1. noun

   the act of buying
   “shrewd purchasing requires considerable knowledge”

   synonyms: buying

   types:

   shopping

   searching for or buying goods or services

   catalog buying, mail-order buying

   buying goods to be shipped through the mail

   viatication, viaticus

   purchasing insurance policies for cash from terminally ill policy holders

   marketing

   shopping at a market

   type of:

   purchase

   the acquisition of something for payment