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.

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 (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.
• “consumer”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →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.