consortium
Americannoun
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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.
A consortium of three developers is undertaking the $30 billion mega-project as part of a public-private partnership.
From Barron's • Jun. 24, 2026
He had positive conversations with Behdad Eghbali, Chelsea's co-owner and the majority shareholder of BlueCo, the consortium which owns both the Blues and Strasbourg.
From BBC • Jun. 23, 2026
Drahi’s deal to sell SFR follows months of negotiations with the consortium after an earlier roughly $20 billion bid was rejected.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026
It has been continuously operated by a US-Russian-led consortium that includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries since 1998.
From BBC • Jun. 5, 2026
While attempting to isolate enough of the compounds in the cockroaches, an international consortium of scientists develops revolutionary technologies to increase the size of the cockroaches through genetic manipulation.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
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.
