customer
Americannoun
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a person who purchases goods or services from another; buyer; patron.
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Informal. a person one has to deal with.
a tough customer; a cool customer.
noun
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a person who buys
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informal a person with whom one has dealings
a cool customer
Etymology
Origin of customer
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English; custom + -er 1; compare Middle English customer “collector of customs,” from Anglo-French; Old French costumier, cognate with Medieval Latin custumārius; see customary
Explanation
A customer is anyone paying for a good or service. Without customers, businesses would go out of business. When you're paying for just about anything, you're a customer. People shopping at the grocery store, sitting in coffee shops, going to movies, and buying DVDs online are all customers. The point of advertising is to drum up new customers for a business. There's a cliché that "The customer is always right," which is obviously not true, but shows how businesses try to make customers happy. They'd better. Without customers, any business is in deep trouble.
Vocabulary lists containing customer
Business, List 1
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The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
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Unit 17, Lesson 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Careers in customer service, accounting and data entry once paved the way to the middle class.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
These increasingly now prompt the customer to add a tip.
From BBC • May 27, 2026
Barclays upgraded Sandisk to Overweight with a $2,300 price target, citing long-term customer agreements that ensure revenue and mitigate downturns.
From Barron's • May 27, 2026
Micron announced during its earnings report in March that it was moving to strategic customer agreements, or SCAs, that it said go beyond the long-term agreements it had been making with customers.
From MarketWatch • May 27, 2026
Willingness to hire people with criminal records is greatest in construction or manufacturing—industries that require little customer contact—and weakest in retail trade and other service sector businesses.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
