consultant

American  

[kuhn-suhl-tnt] / kənˈsʌl tnt /

noun

• consultants
  plural

1. a person who gives professional or expert advice.

   a consultant on business methods.

2. a person who consults someone or something.

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consultant British  

/ kənˈsʌltənt /

noun

1. 1. a senior physician, esp a specialist, who is asked to confirm a diagnosis or treatment or to provide an opinion

   2. a physician or surgeon holding the highest appointment in a particular branch of medicine or surgery in a hospital

2. a specialist who gives expert advice or information

3. a person who asks advice in a consultation

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• consultancy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• consultants
  plural

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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

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

consultant consultants

“I was talking to a Republican consultant who ran one of the big super PACs and he, like, hates all of their media consultants,” Anna Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, told me.

From Slate ● Oct. 15, 2026

Although a consultant determined he needed to be reviewed again in six months, he received no follow-up appointment.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

The 2025 figure is "encouraging but so far it's the exception, not a new trajectory", Erin Matson, the study's co-author and lead consultant at advisory group Climate Focus, said in a media briefing.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

This season, his cover blown, he continues the hunt while working for the police as a consultant on individual cases.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

The next summer, when Dad was hired as a consultant by a washing machine company, we went through the same procedure with the washboard and hand-wringer at Nantucket.

From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

It wasn’t necessary for individuals working in the firm’s international division to be licensed as attorneys in China, the person said, because they were technically international legal consultants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

“We are now seeing the conversion of civilian surveillance into wartime intelligence collection,” said Alexander Leslie, a national-security expert at threat-intelligence consultants Recorded Future, who sees a global “soft underbelly” in omnipresent digital eyeballs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

Prior to cutting classes and student services, he would want to look for savings in “administrative costs, consultants, outside contracts, open positions, and construction spending.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

A British Museum spokesperson said the museum was "committed to making the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition as accessible as possible" and had worked with specialist access consultants.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

As some sociologists and marketing consultants see it, the commonly accepted big three—the upper, middle, and working classes—have broken down into dozens of microclasses, defined by occupations or lifestyles.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

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Related Words

• advisor
• expert
• specialist
• veteran

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