consumer price index

noun

: an index measuring the change in the cost of typical wage-earner purchases of goods and services expressed as a percentage of the cost of these same goods and services in some base period

called also cost-of-living index

Examples of consumer price index in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The bottom line In a sign of how much investors are currently worried about inflation returning, the Institute for Supply Management’s services index, an inflation reading typically secondary to more significant data points like the consumer price index, is sending shockwaves through the market. —Yeo Boon Ping, CNBC, 8 Jan. 2025

Prices in the consumer price index (CPI) have jumped to a 2.7 percent annual increase from 2.6 percent in October and 2.4 percent in September. —Tobias Burns, The Hill, 18 Dec. 2024

Consumer prices overall increased 2.7% from a year ago, up from 2.6% in October, according to the Labor Department’s consumer price index, a popular measure of goods and services costs. —Paul Davidson, USA TODAY, 11 Dec. 2024

The new consumer price index, released Wednesday, shows at-home food prices in the Twin Cities were up just 1.2% year-over-year in November. —Nick Halter, Axios, 11 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1945, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

consumer price index

noun

consumer price in·​dex

: an index measuring the change in the cost of typical wage-earner purchases of goods and services in some base period

called also cost-of-living index