Prosumer

//pɹəʊˈsjuːmə// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 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.""

  2. 2
    A serious, enthusiastic consumer: not professional (earning money), but of similar interest and skills to a (generally lower-level) professional, or aspiring to that.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Targeting serious, enthusiastic consumers, incorporating professional features but often modified for non-professional use. not-comparable
  2. 2
    High-end. not-comparable

Synonyms

All synonyms
amateuramateurenthusiastenthusiasthobbyisthobbyist

Example

More examples

"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.""

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

Blend of professional + consumer.

Related phrases

high end

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