Noun

(commodities)

(obsolete) Convenience; usefulness, suitability.

Anything movable (a good) that is bought and sold.

* 1995 , James G. Carrier, Gifts and Commodities: Exchange and Western Capitalism Since 1700 , p.122

If a key part of shopping is the conversion of anonymous commodities into possessions, shopping is a cultural as much as an economic activity.

* 2001 , Rachel Pain, Introducing Social Geographies , p.26

In human geography "commodities'" usually refers to goods and services which are bought and sold. The simplest ' commodities are those produced by the production system just before they are sold.

* 2005 , William Leiss, Botterill, Jacki, Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace , p.307

*:* Referring to the work of Bourdieu, Zukin (2004,38) notes that shopping is much more than the purchase of commodities

Something useful or valuable.

* 2008 , Jan. 14th, Somerset County Gazette

And Slade said: "It really makes me sad that football club chairmen and boards seem to have lost that most precious commodity - patience. "Sam's sacking at Newcastle had, I suppose, been on the cards for a while, but it is really ridiculous to fire a manager after such a short time.

(obsolete) Self-interest; personal convenience or advantage.

*, I.40:

Shall we employ the intelligence Heaven hath bestowed upon us for our greatest good, to our ruine? repugning natures desseign and the universal order and vicissitude of things, which implieth that every man should use his instruments and meanes for his owne commoditie ?

*, NYRB, 2001, vol.1, p.321:

they commonly respect their own ends, commodity is the steer of all their action.

(economics) Raw materials, agricultural and other primary products as objects of large-scale trading in specialized exchanges.

The price of crude oil is determined in continuous trading between professional players in World's many commodities exchanges.

(marketing) Undifferentiated goods characterized by a low profit margin, as distinguished from branded products.

Although they were once in the forefront of consumer electronics, the calculators have become a mere commodity .

(Marxism) Anything which has both a use-value and an exchange-value.

Noun

(necessities)

The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or absolutely requisite.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)

, volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul.}}

The condition of being needy or necessitous; pressing need; indigence; want.

That which is necessary; a requisite; something indispensable.

*

Love and compassion are necessities , not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.

That which makes an act or an event unavoidable; irresistible force; overruling power; compulsion, physical or moral; fate; fatality.

* 1804 , Wordsworth,

I stopped, and said with inly muttered voice,

'It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:

This neither is its courage nor its choice,

But its necessity in being old.

The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the subjection of all phenomena, whether material or spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.

(legal) Greater utilitarian good; used in justification of a criminal act .

(legal, in the plural) Indispensable requirements (of life).