customer
Americannoun
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customers
plural
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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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
That’s about the percentage of Net-a-Porter’s customer base driving nearly 50% of its revenue.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
He noted that while other neoclouds have depended on convertible-debt offerings and customer prepayments, “CoreWeave has been using primarily straight debt.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
Shares slumped after the industrial services provider lowered its outlook for the year and said it would cut up to 1,500 jobs, with postponed customer investments expected to weigh on results.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The open letter, external says workers are delivering "strong financial results and improved customer services" with its current working from home policy.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
I looked through the glass in the door to the shop, but Betsie, behind her little cashier’s desk, was talking to a customer.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Campbell’s acquired Rao’s, and there are armies of people online who remain convinced that something must have changed, despite Rao’s FAQ explicitly assuring worried customers that the company won’t “touch the sauce.”
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
“But, for sure, now we have a whole wave of small customers who no longer have that option available and would like to leverage ours. And we’re more than happy to help if we can.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 20, 2026
He started on the data center’s night shift, helping maintain machinery for customers across the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
Dodgers owner Mark Walter and multiple insurance companies he owns are being sued for allegedly failing to disclose an ongoing federal probe to customers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
“We could remind everyone to support small businesses. As long as customers keep shopping in town, then Hope Springs has a chance to compete against SmartMart.”
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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.
