# consumer
## English
### Etymology

From consume +‎ -er.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /kənˈsjuːmə/, /kənˈʃuːmə/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American, Canada) IPA: /kənˈsumɚ/
* (General Australian) IPA: /kənˈsjʉːmə/
* Hyphenation: con‧su‧mer
* Rhymes: -uːmə(ɹ)

### Noun

consumer (plural consumers)
* One who, or that which, consumes.
** 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎: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.
* (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: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: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.
* (by extension) The consumer base of a product, service or business.
    Our consumers are upwardly mobile and middle-class.
* (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
### 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: /kɔ̃.sy.me/
* Audio:(file)

### Verb

consumer
* to consume; to use up
* (figuratively) to consume
    Synonym: consommer

#### Related terms

* consommer

### Further reading

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