consumer

English

Etymology

From consume +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kənˈsjuːmə/, /kənˈʃuːmə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /kənˈsumɚ/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kənˈsjʉːmə/
• Hyphenation: con‧su‧mer
• Rhymes: -uːmə(ɹ)

Noun

consumer (plural consumers)

1. One who, or that which, consumes.
   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎^[1]:

     But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.

2. (economics) Someone who trades money for goods or services as an individual.

   Antonym: producer

   This new system favours the consumer over the producer.

   • 2023 February 23, Parija Kavilanz, “Americans have a collective $21 billion in unspent gift cards”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Almost two-thirds of American consumers have at least one unspent gift card tucked away in a drawer, pocket, wallet or purse.

   • 2024 May 30, Bryan Mena and Nathaniel Meyersohn, “The American shopping spree is losing steam”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     A second estimate of gross domestic product, released Thursday, showed that consumer spending was weaker in the first three months of the year than initially reported.

3. (by extension) The consumer base of a product, service or business.

   Our consumers are upwardly mobile and middle-class.

4. (ecology) An organism (heterotroph) that uses other organisms for food in order to gain energy.

   Antonym: producer

   Hyponyms: carnivore, decomposer, detritivore, first-order consumer, herbivore, omnivore, scavenger, second-order consumer

Derived terms

• anticonsumer
• anti-consumer
• business-to-business-to-consumer
• business-to-consumer
• consoomer
• conspicuous consumer
• consumer brand
• consumer credit
• consumerdom
• consumer good
• consumer-grade
• consumerish
• consumerism
• consumerist
• consumerization
• consumerize
• consumerlike
• consumer price index
• consumer research
• consumer resistance
• consumer rights
• consumership
• consumer society
• consumer surplus
• consumer unit
• consumer whore
• cyberconsumer
• direct-to-consumer
• end-consumer
• end consumer
• macroconsumer
• mesoconsumer
• metaconsumer
• microconsumer
• multiconsumer
• mystery consumer
• nonconsumer
• postconsumer
• preconsumer
• prosumer
• secondary consumer
• smoke consumer
• transumer

Related terms

• consumption

Translations

that or who which consumes

• Bulgarian: консума́тор (bg) m (konsumátor)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kuluttaja (fi)
• Indonesian: pemakai (id), pengguna (id)
• Latin: cōnsumptor
• Malayalam: ഉപഭോക്താവ് (ml) (upabhōktāvŭ)
• Maori: kaiwhakapeto, kaiwhakapau
• Sanskrit: अशिर (sa) m (aśira)

person purchasing goods

• Albanian: konsumator (sq) m
• Arabic: مُسْتَهْلِك (mustahlik), مُسْتَنْفِد m (mustanfid)
• Armenian: սպառող (hy) (spaṙoġ)
• Azerbaijani: istehlakçı (az)
• Belarusian: спажыве́ц m (spažyvjéc), спажыва́льнік m (spažyválʹnik), спажыва́льніца f (spažyválʹnica)
• Bengali: ভোক্তা (bn) (bhōkta)
• Bulgarian: потреби́тел (bg) m (potrebítel), потреби́телка f (potrebítelka)
• Burmese: စားသုံးသူ (my) (ca:sum:su)
• Catalan: consumidor m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 消費者 / 消费者 (zh) (xiāofèizhě)

• Czech: spotřebitel (cs) m, spotřebitelka (cs) f
• Danish: forbruger (da) c
• Dutch: consument (nl) m, verbruiker (nl) m
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: tarbija
• Finnish: kuluttaja (fi)
• French: consommateur (fr), consommatrice (fr) f
• Galician: consumidor (gl) m, consumidora f
• Georgian: მომხმარებელი (ka) (momxmarebeli)
• German: Konsument (de) m, Konsumentin (de) f, Verbraucher (de) m, Verbraucherin (de) f, Endverbraucher (de) m, Endverbraucherin (de) f
• Greek: καταναλωτής (el) m (katanalotís)
• Hebrew: צַרְכָן (he) m (tsarkhán), צרכנית f (tsarkhanít)
• Hindi: उपभोक्ता (hi) m (upbhoktā)
• Hungarian: fogyasztó (hu)
• Italian: consumatore (it) m, consumatrice (it) f
• Japanese: 消費者 (ja) (しょうひしゃ, shōhisha)
• Kazakh: тұтынушы (tūtynuşy)
• Khmer: អ្នកប្រើប្រាស់ (nĕək praə prah)
• Korean: 소비자(消費者) (ko) (sobija)
• Kyrgyz: керектөөчү (ky) (kerektööcü)
• Lao: ຜູ້ຊົມໃຊ້ (phū som sai)
• Latvian: patērētājs m
• Lithuanian: vartotojas (lt) m
• Macedonian: потрошувач m (potrošuvač), потрошувачка f (potrošuvačka)
• Malayalam: ഉപഭോക്താവ് (ml) (upabhōktāvŭ)
• Maori: kaiwhakapau, kaiwhakapeto
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хэрэглэгч (mn) (xereglegč)

  Mongolian: ᠬᠡᠷᠡᠭᠯᠡᠭᠴᠢ (kereɣleɣči)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: forbruker m

• Persian: مصرف کننده (fa) (masraf-e konande)
• Polish: konsument (pl) m, konsumentka f
• Portuguese: consumidor (pt) m
• Romanian: consumator (ro) m, consumatoare (ro) f
• Russian: потреби́тель (ru) m (potrebítelʹ), потреби́тельница (ru) f (potrebítelʹnica)
• Scottish Gaelic: caitheadair m, fear-caitheamh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: потро̀ша̄ч m, потроша̀чица f

  Roman: potròšāč (sh) m, potrošàčica (sh) f

• Slovak: spotrebiteľ m, spotrebiteľka f
• Slovene: potrošnik m, potrošnica f, porabnik m, porabnica f
• Spanish: consumidor (es) m
• Swedish: konsument (sv) c, förbrukare (sv) c
• Tagalog: mananaid
• Tajik: истеъмолкунанда (isteʾmolkunanda), харидор (xaridor)
• Tatar: кулланучы (qullanuçı)
• Thai: ผู้บริโภค (th) (pûu-bɔɔ-rí-pôok)
• Turkish: tüketici (tr), konsomatör
• Ukrainian: спожива́ч m (spožyváč), спожива́чка f (spožyváčka)
• Uyghur: ئىستېمالچى (istëmalchi)
• Uzbek: isteʻmolchi, xaridor (uz)
• Vietnamese: người tiêu dùng, người tiêu thụ

type of organism

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kuluttaja (fi)
• Korean: 소비자 (ko) (sobija)

Further reading

• consumer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “consumer”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• consumer in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "consumer" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 78.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “consumer”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• cornmuse, mucrones

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōnsūmere (“to devour, waste, use up”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sy.me/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

consumer

1. to consume; to use up
2. (figuratively) to consume

   Synonym: consommer

Conjugation

Conjugation of consumer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	consumer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	consumant /kɔ̃.sy.mɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		consumé /kɔ̃.sy.me/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	consume /kɔ̃.sym/	consumes /kɔ̃.sym/	consume /kɔ̃.sym/	consumons /kɔ̃.sy.mɔ̃/	consumez /kɔ̃.sy.me/	consument /kɔ̃.sym/
	imperfect	consumais /kɔ̃.sy.mɛ/	consumais /kɔ̃.sy.mɛ/	consumait /kɔ̃.sy.mɛ/	consumions /kɔ̃.sy.mjɔ̃/	consumiez /kɔ̃.sy.mje/	consumaient /kɔ̃.sy.mɛ/
	past historic2	consumai /kɔ̃.sy.me/	consumas /kɔ̃.sy.ma/	consuma /kɔ̃.sy.ma/	consumâmes /kɔ̃.sy.mam/	consumâtes /kɔ̃.sy.mat/	consumèrent /kɔ̃.sy.mɛʁ/
	future	consumerai /kɔ̃.sym.ʁe/	consumeras /kɔ̃.sym.ʁa/	consumera /kɔ̃.sym.ʁa/	consumerons /kɔ̃.sym.ʁɔ̃/	consumerez /kɔ̃.sym.ʁe/	consumeront /kɔ̃.sym.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	consumerais /kɔ̃.sym.ʁɛ/	consumerais /kɔ̃.sym.ʁɛ/	consumerait /kɔ̃.sym.ʁɛ/	consumerions /kɔ̃.sy.mə.ʁjɔ̃/	consumeriez /kɔ̃.sy.mə.ʁje/	consumeraient /kɔ̃.sym.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	consume /kɔ̃.sym/	consumes /kɔ̃.sym/	consume /kɔ̃.sym/	consumions /kɔ̃.sy.mjɔ̃/	consumiez /kɔ̃.sy.mje/	consument /kɔ̃.sym/
	imperfect2	consumasse /kɔ̃.sy.mas/	consumasses /kɔ̃.sy.mas/	consumât /kɔ̃.sy.ma/	consumassions /kɔ̃.sy.ma.sjɔ̃/	consumassiez /kɔ̃.sy.ma.sje/	consumassent /kɔ̃.sy.mas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	consume /kɔ̃.sym/	—	consumons /kɔ̃.sy.mɔ̃/	consumez /kɔ̃.sy.me/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• consommer

Further reading

• “consumer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.