consortium
Americannoun
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consortia,
plural
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consortiums
plural
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a combination of financial institutions, capitalists, etc., for carrying into effect some financial operation requiring large resources of capital.
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any association, partnership, or union.
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Law. the legal right of partners in a marriage to companionship and conjugal intercourse with each other.
In a wrongful death action the surviving spouse commonly seeks damages for loss of consortium.
noun
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an association of financiers, companies, etc, esp one formed for a particular purpose
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law the right of husband or wife to the company, assistance, and affection of the other
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of consortium
1820–30; < Latin: partnership, equivalent to consort- consort + -ium -ium
Explanation
Consortium is a fancy word for a group you form for an enterprise beyond what any one member could do alone. All the grocery stores in your neighborhood might form a consortium for the promotion of local strawberries. Consortium comes from the verb consort, which means "to accompany or associate." Consortium used to mean "fellowship, participation, society," but these days you're more likely to hear consortium for an association of different institutions like schools or companies than, say, a consortium of philosophical frog lovers. Still, consortiums usually preserve the ideals of fellowship, with every member institution chipping in to reach a common goal.
Vocabulary lists containing consortium
The Boys in the Boat
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 25
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The Gene
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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:
Around 14 agencies in the region are part of Meta's global fact-checking program launched in 2016, according to the LatamChequea consortium.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
Officials for the Games’ organizer, LA28, said Thursday that a consortium of public safety agencies, headed by the U.S.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
Earlier this year he spearheaded a consortium who attempted to acquire a controlling stake in his former club Sevilla but the bid failed.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
The site is supported by a consortium between SB Energy, OpenAI and Nvidia, and is expected to be the world’s biggest data center campus.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
He was representing a consortium of interests that included Frank Phillips and Skelly—the old adversaries now allies.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
But consortia funding these projects include publicly traded companies.
From Barron's ● Apr. 12, 2026
"Most large atlases like this require large consortia with dozens of laboratories but our method is far more efficient than other approaches."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 28, 2026
Many of the listed entities weren’t treaty organizations of which the U.S. was formally a member but rather funds, conferences or informal consortia that a country could participate in or not, carrying no obligations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
Financial institutions are now forming consortia for cross-border settlement.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 16, 2026
The consortia that oversee shipping include companies from numerous other countries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 11, 2025
Representatives of the three bidding consortiums each placed their bids for the 75 percent stake on offer in a transparent box.
From Barron's ● Dec. 23, 2025
The legacy media is facing all kinds of financial reversals, and I think it’s tied up in the ownership of a lot of papers by big corporate consortiums who have to worry about their shareholders.
From Slate ● Dec. 11, 2024
“Should there be need for more capital, he’s somebody who’s very adept at putting consortiums together.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 16, 2024
Ex-Worcester Warriors director of rugby Steve Diamond is at the head of one of the two main consortiums looking to take over at Sixways.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2022
"However, international treaties and consortiums discourage nuclear testing," the firm said in a report summary.
From Reuters ● Apr. 4, 2022
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.
