Industry, n.; pl. Industries.
Etymology: [L. industria, cf. industrius diligent; of uncertain origin: cf. F. industrie.]
1. 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. We are more industrious than our forefathers, because in the present times the funds destined for the maintenance of industry are much greater in proportion to those which are likely to be employed in the maintenance of idleness, than they were two or three centuries ago. A. Smith.
2. 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. (Polit. Econ.)
Human exertion of any kind employed for the creation of value, and regarded by some as a species of capital or wealth; labor.
1 more senses
Syn. -- Diligence; assiduity; perseverance; activity; laboriousness; attention. See Diligence.
Shades of meaning
Industry is the quality, action, or habit of earnest, steady, and continued attention or devotion to any useful or productive work or task, manual or mental. Assiduity (L. ad, to, and sedeo, sit), as the etymology suggests, sits down to a task until it is done. Diligence (L. diligo, love, choose) invests more effort and exertion, with love of the work or deep interest in its accomplishment; application (L. ad, to, and plico, fold) bends to its work and concentrates all one's powers upon it with utmost intensity; hence, application can hardly be as unremitting as assiduity. Constancy is a steady devotion of heart and principle. Patience works on in spite of annoyances; perseverance overcomes hindrances and difficulties; persistence strives relentlessly against opposition; persistence has very frequently an unfavorable meaning, implying that one persists in spite of considerations that should induce him to desist. Industry is diligence applied to some avocation, business, or profession. Labor and pains refer to the exertions of the worker and the tax upon him, while assiduity, perseverance, etc., refer to his continuance in the work.