Customer

//ˈkʌstəmə// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A habitual patron, regular purchaser, returning client; a person or company who has a custom of buying from a particular business. obsolete
  2. 2
    someone who pays for goods or services wordnet
  3. 3
    A patron, a client; a person or company who purchases or receives a product or service from a business or merchant, or intends to do so.

    "Every person who passes by is a potential customer."

  4. 4
    A person, especially one engaging in some sort of interaction with others. informal

    "a cool customer, a tough customer, an ugly customer"

  5. 5
    A native official who exacted customs duties. India, historical

    "His houses […] are seized on by the Customer."

Synonyms

All synonyms
buyerclientconsumeradamitebeingbloke

Example

More examples

"The company went after its no. 1 customer complaint: power outages."

Etymology

From Middle English customere, custommere, from Old French coustumier, costumier (compare modern French coutumier), from Medieval Latin custumarius (“a toll-gatherer, tax-collector”, noun), from custumarius (“pertaining to custom or customs”, adjective), from custuma (“custom, tax”). More at custom. By surface analysis, custom + -er.

Related phrases

customer accountcustomer basecustomer carecustomer experiencecustomer relationshipcustomer researchcustomer resistancecustomer servicecustomer sitecustomer successcustomer success managercustomer support

More for "customer"

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Related Topic Clusters

Customer Support and Service Language

Empathetic and precise wording for support replies, escalations, and resolution updates.

Next best steps

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.