v. 1
To trade or barter.
I'll gladly exchange my place for yours.
v. 2
To mutually direct at each other.
The opposing soldiers exchanged fire across the burning streets.
n. 1
An act of exchanging or trading.
an exchange of cattle for grain
n. 2
A place for conducting trading.
The stock exchange is open for trading.

Related words

Word family: exchangeability exchangeable exchanger
Phrases: currency exchange foreign exchange stock exchange telephone exchange exchange flesh bill of exchange cookie exchange employment exchange

Forms

Plural: exchanges → substitutions, permutations, commutations, centrals…
Past participle: exchanged
e.g. exchanged → interchanged, substituted, replaced, commuted…

Choose the right word

Exchange, Change or Alter?

To change is distinctively to make a thing other than it has been, in some respect at least; to exchange to put or take something else in its place; to alter is ordinarily to change partially, to make different in one or more particulars.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

interchange He didn't notice the interchange ahead of him.
trade Abraham Lincoln's father was a carpenter by trade.
transfer I haven't got any money on me, but I can transfer.
swap Where's your twenty? I'll swap it for a fiver.
reciprocate Ziri wasn't able to reciprocate Rima's feelings.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
exchange		steady
interchange		falling
trade		falling
transfer		falling
swap		rising
reciprocate		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters: give¹, sell¹, sale¹, swap¹
5 letters: trade¹, truck¹, shift¹, rally², bandy²
6 letters: change¹, market², switch¹, barter², bourse¹, wrixle
7 letters: central², traffic², replace², dealing², convert², bargain², commute², permute²
8 letters: transfer², commerce², swapping²
9 letters: transpose²
10 letters: substitute³
11 letters: interchange³, reciprocity⁵, reciprocate⁴, permutation⁴, commutation⁴
12 letters: substitution⁴
13 letters: reciprocation

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (rally² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: échanger
Italiano: scambiare
Español: intercambiar
Deutsch: austauschen
Català: intercanviar