What does consume mean?
Consume is a versatile verb that fundamentally means to take something in and use it up. Its most concrete sense covers eating and drinking, while its most widespread modern usage involves expending resources such as fuel, electricity, time, or money. The word can also describe destruction, as when fire consumes a building, and it carries a powerful figurative meaning in which an emotion or idea consumes a person — dominating their thoughts entirely, as in 'consumed by grief' or 'consumed with ambition.' Derived from Latin roots meaning 'to take altogether,' consume entered English in the late Middle Ages and has since become central to economic vocabulary, giving us 'consumer' and 'consumerism.' Though common in formal, scientific, and economic writing, it can sound slightly stiff in casual conversation, where simpler verbs like 'eat' or 'use up' often substitute. Understanding consume illuminates how language tracks our relationship with food, energy, and desire itself.
verbTo eat, drink, or use up (food, resources, or energy); more broadly, to take in or expend something entirely. It can also mean to destroy by fire or to absorb and occupy someone's attention or emotions.
- To eat or drink (food, drink).
- To use up (resources, fuel, time, energy).
- To destroy completely, especially by fire.
- To absorb all of one's attention or emotion (often passive: 'consumed with/by').
"The average household consumes roughly 900 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month."
"She consumes at least two litres of water every day during training."
"The fire consumed the old barn within minutes."
From Latin for 'to take altogether,' consume now describes everything from burning calories to burning through your phone battery — and in economics, you're officially a 'consumer.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of consume
Consume derives from Latin 'consumere,' formed from the prefix 'com-' ('together, altogether') plus 'sumere' ('to take, obtain'), originally conveying the sense of taking something up entirely. The word passed into English via Old French in the late medieval period, initially carrying strong associations of wasting, squandering, or destroying — as in 'consumed by fire.' Over time its meaning broadened to encompass ordinary eating, drinking, and using up of goods, and in modern economics it anchors the vocabulary of consumption, giving rise to derivatives like consumer, consumable, and consumerism. Cognate formations from the same Latin root include assume, presume, and resume, which share the 'sumere' base but took different prefixes.
Related word forms
How consume is actually used
In formal and economic contexts, consume often appears in technical discussions of consumption and consumers. The figurative passive form 'consumed by' (grief, curiosity) is common in literary register. In everyday speech, people more often say 'use up' or 'eat' than consume.
Easily confused with consume
"Resume" means to begin again after a pause, while "consume" means to use up or devour — the words merely rhyme, not overlap in meaning.