private sector

noun

All organizations in an economy or jurisdiction that are not controlled by government, including privately owned businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

“After spending two decades at various government agencies, he returned to the private sector and took a job as a business consultant.”

Opposite
public sector
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Meanings

nounprivate sector (plural private sectors)

plural private sectors

  1. businessAll organizations in an economy or jurisdiction that are not controlled by government, including privately owned businesses and not-for-profit organizations.

    After spending two decades at various government agencies, he returned to the private sector and took a job as a business consultant.

    2 more examples

    Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.

    2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

    After decades of observation, it's pretty obvious to me that all governments are uniformly useless at actually running anything, so we need to employ the private sector to do the job for us on properly specified contracts [...].

    2022 August 24, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Rail strikes deadlock”, in RAIL, number 964, page 3

Synonyms & antonyms

antonym(s) of “business”

Opposite
public sector

Origin

private + sector

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 私人部門 /私人部门
  • 私人部門 /私人部门 (sīrén bùmén)organizations not controlled by government
Finnish yksityissektori, yksityinen sektori
  • yksityissektoriorganizations not controlled by government
  • yksityinen sektoriorganizations not controlled by government
French secteur privé
  • secteur privéorganizations not controlled by government
German Privatsektor
  • Privatsektororganizations not controlled by government
Greek ιδιωτικός τομέας
  • ιδιωτικός τομέας (idiotikós toméas)organizations not controlled by government
Hungarian magánszektor, maszek
  • magánszektororganizations not controlled by government
  • maszekorganizations not controlled by government
Japanese 民間セクター
  • 民間セクター (minkan-sekutā)organizations not controlled by government
Malay sektor swasta
  • sektor swastaorganizations not controlled by government
Māori rāngai tūmataiti
  • rāngai tūmataitiorganizations not controlled by government
Polish sektor prywatny
  • sektor prywatnyorganizations not controlled by government
Russian ча́стный се́ктор
  • ча́стный се́ктор (částnyj séktor)organizations not controlled by government
Scottish Gaelic roinn phrìobhaideach
  • roinn phrìobhaideachorganizations not controlled by government
Swahili sekta ya binafsi
  • sekta ya binafsiorganizations not controlled by government
Swedish privat sektor
  • privat sektororganizations not controlled by government
Tamil தனியார் துறை
  • தனியார் துறை (taṉiyār tuṟai)organizations not controlled by government
Cite this entry
APA

private sector. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/private%20sector

MLA

“private sector.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/private%20sector. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “private sector,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/private%20sector.

Source: private sector on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.