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consumer

/kənˈsumɚ/
noun

Consumer meaning: a person who uses goods or services; CONSUMER is an eight-letter word worth 12 points in Scrabble.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Noun 4 meanings

  1. One who, or that which, consumes.

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

    “This new system favours the consumer over the producer.”

  3. The consumer base of a product, service or business.

    “Our consumers are upwardly mobile and middle-class.”

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

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

From consume + -er.

Similar and opposite words

Opposite
producer

As a noun, consumer can mean a person or thing that consumes. In everyday use, it usually refers to an individual buying goods or services, but it also describes a product's customer base. Biology uses the word for an organism that gets energy by consuming other organisms, giving it a broader meaning than simply “shopper.”

CONSUMER at a glance

  • CONSUMER has eight letters and is worth 12 points before board bonuses.
  • C and M are its only 3-point tiles; the other six letters score 1 each.
  • MUCRONES is its sole anagram, using all eight letters.
  • CONSUMED and CONSUMES are its two one-letter neighbours.

What does consumer mean?

Consumer names a person or thing that consumes. In ordinary conversation, it often means an individual who pays for goods or services; in business, it can refer to a company's customer base. In biology, a consumer is an organism that gets energy by eating other organisms.

That range makes consumer more precise than a simple synonym for shopper: it can describe one buyer, a group of customers, or an organism in a food chain. The word appears in Collins, NWL2023, and ENABLE, though acceptance depends on the dictionary used by your game.

The Scrabble total comes from two 3-point tiles, C and M, plus six 1-point tiles. Its 12-point face value is solid but does not rely on a rare high-value letter, so a premium square matters more than the letter mix.

Anagram, rhymes and close neighbours

MUCRONES is the only anagram recorded for CONSUMER, rearranging every letter. It is an obscure option beside the familiar original, so check your game's word list before relying on it in a play.

The two one-letter neighbours are CONSUMED and CONSUMES: each keeps the first seven letters and changes the final tile. That shared stem makes them easy to spot, but their endings change the word's grammatical form.

CONSUMER rhymes with words ending in the same “mer” sound, including CUSTOMER, SUMMER, FORMER, and HAMMER. CUSTOMER is the closest match in meaning and sound; SUMMER and HAMMER are familiar examples that do not share the consumer-related sense.

Rhymes with consumer

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest

Questions people ask

Is consumer a valid Scrabble word?
Yes, CONSUMER appears in Collins, NWL2023, and ENABLE. Its face value is 12 points before board bonuses. Since games can use different word lists, confirm the dictionary setting before challenging or playing it.
What is the anagram of consumer?
MUCRONES is the sole anagram of CONSUMER on record. It uses all eight letters, but it is much less familiar than the original word. Check your game's dictionary before placing it on the board.
Which words are one letter away from consumer?
CONSUMED and CONSUMES are the two one-letter neighbours. Both preserve the first seven letters of CONSUMER and change only the last letter, producing different endings and grammatical forms.

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