consultant
Americannoun
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a person who gives professional or expert advice.
a consultant on business methods.
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a person who consults someone or something.
noun
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a senior physician, esp a specialist, who is asked to confirm a diagnosis or treatment or to provide an opinion
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a physician or surgeon holding the highest appointment in a particular branch of medicine or surgery in a hospital
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a specialist who gives expert advice or information
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a person who asks advice in a consultation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of consultant
First recorded in 1690–1700; from French or directly from Latin consultant- (stem of consultāns, present participle of consultāre “to take counsel”); see origin at consult, -ant
Explanation
A consultant is an expert in a particular field. Sometimes a business will rely on the guidance of a consultant to help change its image. How did the word consultant come about? Consult dates to the 1520s and comes from the French word consultare, meaning "take advice of." The related noun consultant, to mean someone qualified to give advice, is believed to have first appeared in an 1893 Sherlock Holmes story.
Vocabulary lists containing consultant
The Westing Game
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The Lemonade War
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 6
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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:
While shares of the ETF no longer trade, the fund was still in the process of delisting as recently as Friday, Matt Lamb, portfolio consultant at GraniteShares, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
In April 2015 Mr. Sanders had summoned the experienced Democratic campaign consultant to his Vermont home to discuss a run.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Typically, one consultant would handle television advertising, another direct mail, another polling, another big-picture strategy, and so on.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
The press office is under scrutiny over its use of an unpaid consultant as a spokesperson for the first half of the year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Coleman is a classicist who studied at Oxford and a former consultant for McKinsey & Company who clearly enjoys his role as a provocateur.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
The New York magazine story indicated that Harris was blaming political consultants for her loss in 2024.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
He used his army of consultants to help clients navigate AI while positioning the company to milk its legacy mainframe and software businesses and to offer more tailored AI products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
But to the consultants who recruited Platner, being rough around the edges was seen as asset and not a liability.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026
"Off the rails" reads the headline of the Sunday Express, which says that HS2 has spent £77.8m on consultants in just one year.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
The consultants retreated warily, resolving not to call their agents until they were out of earshot.
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
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.
