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.
See Examples For:
The Swiss maker of generic drugs said Monday that it entered into two separate settlement agreements—one with the leadership of a consortium of 43 U.S. states and territories, and another with indirect reseller plaintiffs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Hess’s crown jewel asset was its 30% stake in an Exxon-led consortium in Guyana, a generational oil discovery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
"At this point, I wouldn't say anything different to the statement that a consortium led, managed and represented by Amit Bhatia has come forward and expressed an interest in a minority investment."
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
Oman proposed a regional consortium to oversee maritime security, but Iran still wants to control the strait and collect transit fees.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Rabi stitched together the new lab’s sponsoring consortium, known as Associated Universities, from nine large Eastern research institutions that would have been hard pressed to compete individually in the multimillion-dollar world of postwar high-energy physics.*
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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
Financial institutions are now forming consortia for cross-border settlement.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 16, 2026
The federally funded research center employs about 830 staff, making it one of the largest consortia of scientists who study weather, climate and Earth systems using advanced models and supercomputers in the world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
Virkkunen said companies from outside the EU could participate as long as the consortia are majority-owned by European entities and no “high-risk vendors” are involved.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 4, 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
Rolls Royce beat two American consortiums in the competition, Holtec, GE Hitachi.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 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
Those companies formed consortiums with PGZ and its subsidiaries, which signed the final deal with the Polish government, he said.
From Reuters ● May 29, 2023
Abramovich will sell the club after 19 years as owner, with four consortiums locked in a bidding battle.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 2, 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.
