consumer price index

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An index of prices used to measure the change in the cost of basic goods and services in comparison with a fixed base period. Also called cost-of-living index.

Wiktionary

1. n. economics A statistical estimate of the level of prices of goods and services bought for consumption purposes by households.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An index of the cost of all goods and services to a typical consumer, calculated and published by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics; abbreviated CPI, and usually referred to by that acronym. The Bureau maintains several indices for different groups of consumers, but the most commonly referred to is the index for “All urban consumers”, called the CPI-U. The increase of this value each year is one measure of monetary inflation.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an index of the cost of all goods and services to a typical consumer