ETYM Latin industria, cf. industrius diligent; of uncertain origin: cf. French industrie.
1. The organized action of making of goods and services for sale; SYN. manufacture, manufacturing.
2. The people engaged in a particular kind of commercial enterprise.
The extraction and conversion of raw materials, the manufacture of goods, and the provision of services. Industry can be either low technology, unspecialized, and labor-intensive, as in Third World countries, or highly automated, mechanized, and specialized, using advanced technology, as in the industrialized countries. Major trends in industrial activity 1960–90 were the growth of electronic, robotic, and microelectronic technologies, the expansion of the offshore oil industry, and the prominence of Japan and other Pacific-region countries in manufacturing and distributing electronics, computers, and motor vehicles. + prikaži više