Consumption
//kənˈsʌmp.ʃən// noun
noun ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of eating, drinking or using. uncountable, usually
"The consumption of snails as food is more common in France than in England."
- 2 the act of consuming something wordnet
- 3 The amount consumed. uncountable, usually
"gross national consumption"
- 4 the process of taking food into the body through the mouth (as by eating) wordnet
- 5 The act of consuming or destroying. uncountable, usually
"The fire's consumption of the forest caused ecological changes."
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 (economics) the utilization of economic goods to satisfy needs or in manufacturing wordnet
- 7 The wasting away of the human body through disease. uncountable, usually
- 8 involving the lungs with progressive wasting of the body wordnet
- 9 Pulmonary tuberculosis and other diseases that cause wasting away, lung infection, etc. dated, uncountable, usually
"And then as to your ſcurvys, and gouts, rheumatiſms, conſumptions, coughs and catarrhs, tar-vvater and turpentine vvill make you as ſound as a roach."
- 10 Alcoholism as it precipitates a person's death (especially of natural causes). dated, euphemistic, uncountable, usually
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"In general, people were against the consumption tax."
Etymology
From Middle English consumpcioun, from Old French consumpcion, from Latin cōnsūmptiō, from cōnsūmō + -tiō, from con- (“with, together”) + sūmō (“take; consume”). Equivalent to consume + -tion.
Related phrases
More for "consumption"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.