Word.ws English Dictionary

prosumer

UK/pɹəʊˈsjuːmə/

prosumer noun: a person in postindustrial society who combines the economic roles of producer and consumer.

Noun (1)

prosumer (plural prosumers)

  1. A person in postindustrial society who combines the economic roles of producer and consumer.
    • During the First Wave most people consumed what they themselves produced. They were neither producers nor consumers in the usual sense. They were instead what might be called "prosumers."[1980, Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave

Adjective

prosumer (not comparable)

  1. Targeting serious, enthusiastic consumers, incorporating professional features but often modified for non-professional use.
  2. High-end.

Noun (2)

prosumer (plural prosumers)

  1. A serious, enthusiastic consumer: not professional (earning money), but of similar interest and skills to a (generally lower-level) professional, or aspiring to that.

prosumer meaning in Tamil

prosumer in Tamil

தற்பயன் உருவாக்குநர்

Synonyms of prosumer

Forms of prosumer

pluralprosumers

Origin of prosumer

Blend of producer + consumer, coined by futurologist Alvin Toffler in his book The Third Wave (1980). Concept based on suggestion by Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt in their 1972 book Take Today (p. 4) that consumers would take on producer roles in mass customization.

Blend of professional + consumer.

Questions about prosumer

What does prosumer mean?
Prosumer means a person in postindustrial society who combines the economic roles of producer and consumer.
What is prosumer in Tamil?
Prosumer in Tamil is தற்பயன் உருவாக்குநர். See Prosumer meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is prosumer?
Prosumer can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce prosumer?
Prosumer is pronounced /pɹəʊˈsjuːmə/ (UK).
What is the plural of prosumer?
The plural of prosumer is prosumers.

Words near prosumer in the dictionary

  1. prosubs
  2. prosubstitution
  3. prosuffrage
  4. prosuicide
  5. prosultiamine
  6. prosumer
  7. prosumerism
  8. prosumers
  9. prosumption
  10. prosupination
  11. prosurfactant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: prosumer (page history and authors); prosumer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “prosumer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prosumer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.