Inventory

In a business accounting context, the word inventory is commonly used in American English to describe the goods and materials that a business holds for the ultimate purpose of resale. In the rest of the English speaking world stock is more commonly used, although the word inventory is recognised as a synonym. In British English, the word inventory is more commonly thought of as a list compiled for some formal purpose, such as the details of an estate going to probate, or the contents of a house let furnished. In American English, the word stock is commonly used to describe the capital invested in a business, while in British English, the word share is more widely used in the same context. In both British and American English, stock is the collective noun for one hundred shares as shares were usually traded in stocks on Stock Exchanges. For this reason that the word stock is used by both American and British English forms in the context of the term Stock Exchange.