consume

verb

Simple meaning

To eat, drink or use something up.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuhnsoom

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

kənˈsum

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

Use up (resources or materials)
“This car consumes a lot of gas.”
Eat up completely, as with great appetite
economicstransitiveintransitive
To trade money for good or services as an individual.
transitive
To completely occupy the thoughts or attention of.
transitive
To absorb information, especially through the mass media.
transitive
To destroy completely.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency: Moderately Common
Typical Use: Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Use up (resources or materials)

Used this way, consume is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence

“This car consumes a lot of gas.”

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Common
Connotation: No strong connotation
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

eat up , more casual, better suited to speech than writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use consume

“This car consumes a lot of gas.”verb
“The effort to pass the exam consumed all his energy.”verb

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

consume less

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

deplete
Use up (resources or materials).
have
To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
take
To require (a person, resource or thing in order to achieve an outcome).
waste
To squander (money or resources) uselessly.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

consumernounInflected form
A person who uses goods or services.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

consumer researchnounCompound term
Marketing research that yields information about the motives and needs of different classes of consumers.
consumer price indexnounCompound term
An index of the cost of all goods and services to a typical consumer.
consumer loannounCompound term
A loan that establishes consumer credit that is granted for personal use.
consumer goodsnounCompound term
Goods (as food or clothing) intended for direct use or consumption.
consumer finance companynounCompound term
A finance company that makes loans to people who have trouble getting a bank loan.
consumer durablesnounCompound term
Consumer goods that are not destroyed by use.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: use up (resources or materials)

eat upInformal

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.