consummate
Americanverb (used with object)
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consummates,
present (3rd person singular)
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consummated,
past participle, past
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consummating
present participle
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to bring to a state of perfection; fulfill.
- Synonyms:
- achieve, accomplish, finish, perfect, complete
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to complete (an arrangement, agreement, or the like) by a pledge or the signing of a contract.
The company consummated its deal to buy a smaller firm.
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to complete (the union of a marriage) by the first marital sexual intercourse.
adjective
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complete or perfect; supremely skilled; superb.
a consummate master of the violin.
- Antonyms:
- unfinished, imperfect
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being of the highest or most extreme degree.
a work of consummate skill; an act of consummate savagery.
verb
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to bring to completion or perfection; fulfil
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to complete (a marriage) legally by sexual intercourse
adjective
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accomplished or supremely skilled
a consummate artist
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(prenominal) (intensifier)
a consummate fool
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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consummationnoun
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consummatornoun
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consummativeadjective
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consummatoryadjective
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half-consummatedadjective
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unconsummateadjective
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unconsummatedadjective
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unconsummativeadjective
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consummatelyadverb
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unconsummatelyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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consummatesimple
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consummatessimple
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have consummatedperfect
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has consummatedperfect
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am consummatingprogressive
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are consummatingprogressive
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is consummatingprogressive
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have been consummatingperfect progressive
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has been consummatingperfect progressive
Past
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consummatedsimple
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had consummatedperfect
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was consummatingprogressive
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were consummatingprogressive
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had been consummatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of consummate
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English (adjective), from Latin consummātus “completed,” past participle of consummāre “to complete, bring to perfection,” from con- con- + summ(a) sum + -āre, infinitive verb suffix
Explanation
Consummate means complete, finished, or masterful. If you refer to someone as a consummate chef, then you are saying he is the ultimate chef. If you say someone is a consummate jerk, then you are saying he is the ultimate jerk. Consummate can be used to describe something good or bad: consummate joy, a consummate liar. To consummate means to bring something to completion, but it often refers specifically to making a marriage complete by having sexual relations. The adjective is pronounced KÄN-sə-mit, but the verb is pronounced KÄN-sə-māt.
Vocabulary lists containing consummate
The Book Thief
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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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:
They were consummate problem solvers who had applied that skill to their work lives, often to great effect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Northants knocked off the target of 153 with consummate ease.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Neill was a consummate character actor, hard-working and driven by a love for his craft, with a filmography spanning decades and roles that touched countless lives.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
My husband, consummate family man, was born to be a grandfather.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
War Relic displayed cherubic behavior, grabbed the lead out of the gate, and never relinquished it, winning with consummate ease.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Yet the secret genius of "Your Love" is that the song never directly spells out whether the narrator consummates his crush in real life; we only get one side of the story.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2023
With “Part II,” Hogg consummates a sweeping, inward-looking masterwork, one that reexamines and in certain cases amends reality, the likes of which few filmmakers reach in their careers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2022
Most times, the ritual is all sound and fury and consummates its purpose without any actual violence.
From Newsweek ● Sep. 9, 2013
For art is like a flower, which consummates the plant and ends its growth, while it translates its nature into loveliness.
From Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Third series by John Addington Symonds
But the foregoing is insufficient to explain the unparalleled power and persistence of our love which time intensifies more than it wears out, and consummates as it consumes it.
From Underground Man by Gabriel Tarde
"This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all Nato Nations."
From BBC ● Jan. 22, 2026
In an age when every middle-class household could afford a few hearth gods, the superior collector consummated his passion for beauty against the “prevailing winds of progress, fashion, democracy, money, and modernity.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
Then the mating is consummated, with the female laying eggs in a groove in a tree branch.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 1, 2024
But before the transaction can be consummated, the deal must overcome regulatory scrutiny.
From New York Times ● Feb. 20, 2024
After that he turned his attention almost exclusively to the propulsion of vessels by steam, visiting England and France, but obtaining no pecuniary advantage from the experiments he proposed or consummated.
From The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism. Volume 2 by Frederick Whymper
Discovery are “temporarily enjoined and restrained from closing or consummating the transaction or taking any steps, directly or indirectly, to integrate or consolidate their operations pursuant to the transaction.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
The agency asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late on Thursday to require the companies to delay consummating the transaction while the court considered the FTC's broader appeal.
From Reuters ● Jul. 14, 2023
"The parties are still in the process of formalising, executing, and consummating" the deal, said Fox and Strange's lawyers in a filing at Los Angeles federal court on Friday.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2023
The attorneys had argued Twitter was heavily reliant on Slack in consummating the deal, with multiple channels that hosted discussions about the merger.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 7, 2022
When they arrive at their journey’s end, the angel, as go-between, asks Gabael’s daughter Sara in wedlock for Tobias, though seven men have died while consummating their marriage with her.
From The Grateful Dead The History of a Folk Story by Gordon Hall Gerould
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.
