1. (n.) Habitual diligence in any employment or pursuit, either bodily or mental; steady attention to business; assiduity; -- opposed to sloth and idleness; as, industry pays debts, while idleness or despair will increase them.

2. (n.) Any department or branch of art, occupation, or business; especially, one which employs much labor and capital and is a distinct branch of trade; as, the sugar industry; the iron industry; the cotton industry.

3. (n.) Human exertion of any kind employed for the creation of value, and regarded by some as a species of capital or wealth; labor.

Aktiengesellschaft activity aktiebolag application ardor assiduity assiduousness balance of trade big business body corporate bulldog tenacity business business dealings business establishment bustle cartel chamber of commerce combine commerce commercial affairs commercial enterprise commercial relations compagnie company concentration concern conglomerate conglomerate corporation consolidating company consortium constancy copartnership corporate body corporation dealing dealings determination diligence dirty work diversified corporation dogged perseverance doggedness donkeywork drudgery dynamism earnestness effort employment endurance energeticalness energy engrossment enterprise exertion fag fair trade fatigue fervor fidelity firm free trade grind handiwork handwork holding company house hustle indefatigability industriousness insistence insistency intercourse joint-stock association joint-stock company labor laboriousness lick lick of work loyalty manual labor manufacture market marketing mercantile business merchantry moil multilateral trade obstinacy operating company pains painstaking painstakingness partnership patience patience of Job permanence perseverance persistence persistency pertinaciousness pertinacity plodding plugging plunderbund pool preoccupation production public utility rat race reciprocal trade relentlessness resolution restraint of trade scut work sedulity sedulousness single-mindedness singleness of purpose slavery slogging small business spadework stability stamina staying power steadfastness steadiness stick-to-itiveness stock company strenuousness stroke stroke of work stubbornness sweat syndicate task tenaciousness tenacity the business world the marketplace thoroughgoingness thoroughness tirelessness tiresome work toil trade trade association traffic travail treadmill truck trust unilateral trade unremittingness unsparingness unswerving attention utility vehemence vigor work zealousness