producer

American  

[pruh-doo-ser, -dyoo-] / prəˈdu sər, -ˈdju- /

noun

• producers
  plural

1. a person who produces.

2. Economics. a person who creates economic value, or produces goods and services.

3. a person responsible for the financial and administrative aspects of a stage, film, television, or radio production; the person who exercises general supervision of a production and is responsible chiefly for raising money, hiring technicians and artists, etc., required to stage a play, make a motion picture, or the like.

4. British Theater. (formerly) a director of theatrical productions; stage director.

5. an apparatus for making producer gas.

6. Ecology. an organism, as a plant, that is able to produce its own food from inorganic substances.

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producer British  

/ prəˈdjuːsə /

noun

1. a person or thing that produces

2. a person responsible for the artistic direction of a play, including interpretation of the script, preparation of the actors, and overall design

3. a person who organizes the stage production of a play, including the finance, management, etc

4. the person who takes overall administrative responsibility for a film or television programme Compare director

5. the person who supervises the arrangement, recording, and mixing of a record

6. economics a person or business enterprise that generates goods or services for sale Compare consumer

7. chem an apparatus or plant for making producer gas

8. (often plural) ecology an organism, esp a green plant, that builds up its own tissues from simple inorganic compounds See also consumer decomposer

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producer Scientific  

/ prə-do̅o̅′sər /

1. An autotrophic organism that serves as a source of food for other organisms in a food chain. Producers include green plants, which produce food through photosynthesis, and certain bacteria that are capable of converting inorganic substances into food through chemosynthesis.

2. Compare consumer

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonproducer
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• producers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of producer

First recorded in 1505–15; produce + -er ¹

Explanation

If you have the chance to travel to Brazil, you might get to visit the largest producer of coffee beans in the world. A producer is a maker or manufacturer of something. Since the 1500s, the word producer has been used to mean "one who produces." In the late 1800s it began to have a second meaning, "someone who finances and supervises a show". A movie producer oversees the making of films in various ways, including raising money, and a record producer does a similar job in the music industry, working with musicians. This kind of producer is more of a supervisor and adviser than the actual maker of the finished product.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

producer producers

Matthew Rhys: I forgot about the executive producer part.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026

Other examples cited include a television producer who reportedly contacted the band's management thinking they were related to Kpop Demon Hunters, and social media posts incorrectly tagging Demon Hunter when discussing the film.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Ms. Hamilton is producer of four documentaries on Ukraine featuring and directed by Bernard Henri-Lévy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

Altmayer, a 61-year-old film producer, headed the company Mandarin & Compagnie with his brother Eric.

From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026

“And part of being the producer is taking care of my director.”

From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon

The government has spent the last few weeks recruiting producers, videographers and strategists, working out of both Whitehall and No 10 North in Manchester.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026

But film industry advocates say the corporate tax credit cap will hurt film producers and undercut the effectiveness of the state’s expanded film and TV tax credits.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

That system allows the government to set prices for dairy products and imposes import controls and quotas on domestic producers to keep supplies in check.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

But the corporation has not apologized for the underlying accusation — because the documentary’s producers and the BBC’s lawyers believe it is true.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026

Most peasant farmers and herders, who constitute the great majority of the world’s actual food producers, aren’t necessarily better off than hunter-gatherers.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Related Words

• architect
• contractor
• maker
• manufacturer