consumer

English

Etymology

consume +‎ -er

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈsjuːmə/
• IPA^(key): /kənˈsumɚ/
• Rhymes: -uːmə(r)

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.

   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.

Antonyms

• (economics) and (biology): producer

Derived terms

Derived terms

• anticonsumer
• consumerism
• consumerist

• macroconsumer
• mesoconsumer
• metaconsumer
• microconsumer

Translations

that or who which consumes

• Bulgarian: консуматор (bg) m (konsumator)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kuluttaja (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Indonesian: pemakai (id), pengguna (id)
• Latin: cōnsumptor
• Maori: kaiwhakapeto, kaiwhakapau
• Sanskrit: अशिर (sa) m (aśira)

person purchasing goods

• Arabic: مُسْتَهْلِك (mustahlik), مُسْتَنْفِد m (mustanfid)
• Armenian: սպառող (hy) (spaṙoġ)
• Bulgarian: потреби́тел (bg) m (potrebítel)
• Catalan: consumidor m
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: spotřebitel (cs) m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: consument (nl) m, verbruiker (nl) m
• Finnish: kuluttaja (fi)
• French: consommateur (fr)
• Georgian: მომხმარებელი (ka) (momxmarebeli)
• German: Konsument (de) m, Verbraucher (de) m, Endverbraucher (de) m
• Hebrew: צרכן (he) m (tzarkhan), צרכנית f (tzarkhanit)
• Hungarian: fogyasztó (hu)
• Italian: consumatore (it) m, consumatrice (it) f
• Japanese: 消費者 (ja) (しょうひしゃ, shōhisha)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 소비자 (ko) (sobija) (消費者 (ko))
• Macedonian: потрошувач m (potrošuvač)
• Maori: kaiwhakapau, kaiwhakapeto
• Persian: مصرف کننده (fa) (masraf-e konande)
• Polish: konsument (pl) m
• Portuguese: consumidor (pt) m
• Russian: потреби́тель (ru) m (potrebítelʹ), потреби́тельница (ru) f (potrebítelʹnica)
• Scottish Gaelic: caitheadair m, fear-caitheamh m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: потрошач m

  Roman: potrošač (sh) m

• Spanish: consumidor (es) m
• Swedish: konsument (sv) c
• Tagalog: mananaid
• Thai: ผู้บริโภค (pûu-bɔɔ-rí-pôok)
• Turkish: tüketici (tr)
• Ukrainian: спожива́ч m (spožyváč)
• Vietnamese: người tiêu dùng, người tiêu thụ

type of organism

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kuluttaja (fi)

See also

biology

• carnivore
• decomposer
• detritivore
• first-order consumer
• herbivore
• omnivore
• producer
• scavenger
• second-order consumer

Further reading

• "consumer" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 78.

Anagrams

• cornmuse, mucrones

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sy.me/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

consumer

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

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).

Further reading

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