Jump To:

• foreign service
  foreign service

  noun

  a division of the U.S. Department of State or of a foreign office that maintains diplomatic and consular posts and personnel in other countries.
• Foreign Service
  Foreign Service

  The professional arm of the executive branch that supplies diplomats for the United States embassies and consulates around the world. Ambassadors, though officially members of the Foreign Service, are sometimes friends of the president of the United States appointed in gratitude for support given during elections.

foreign service

American  

noun

(often initial capital letters)

1. a division of the U.S. Department of State or of a foreign office that maintains diplomatic and consular posts and personnel in other countries.

---

foreign service British  

noun

1. the diplomatic and usually consular personnel of a foreign affairs ministry or foreign office collectively who represent their country abroad, deal with foreign diplomats at home, etc

---

Foreign Service Cultural  

1. The professional arm of the executive branch that supplies diplomats for the United States embassies and consulates around the world. Ambassadors, though officially members of the Foreign Service, are sometimes friends of the president of the United States appointed in gratitude for support given during elections.

---

Etymology

Origin of foreign service

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foreign service Foreign Service

Still, when their husbands die, ostensibly in a plane crash, Bea and Twila are grief-stricken — they have lost not only their husbands but their careers as foreign service wives.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 15, 2026

At one point in February, Marocco tried ordering the immediate return of foreign service officers stationed abroad.

From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2025

Cynthia Iglesias Guven worked at the Agriculture Department since 1998, living around the world as a foreign service officer and eventually taking a senior job in Washington.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2025

"I see foreign service officers that have spent their entire lives serving - a large part of it overseas - and the sacrifices they made," they said.

From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2025

In company, therefore, with the earl of Norfolk he refused to render foreign service in Gascony, on the plea that they were only bound to serve with the king, who was himself bound for Flanders.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 2 "Bohemia" to "Borgia, Francis" by Various

She and her husband, Paul Pelosi — a Georgetown alumnus — established the Paul F. Pelosi Scholars Initiative at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in 2018, which supports students pursuing public service careers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026

A director at a union for Foreign Service employees, she called the pool drama “a fun distraction from the more serious things” going on at her work.

From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2026

Gracias attended the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service before getting a law degree from the University of Chicago.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

The goal of those fellowships has been to help students from underrepresented groups get a chance at entering the Foreign Service soon after graduation.

From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2025

The receptionist came out and handed us a Foreign Service, U.S.

From "Breaking Through" by Francisco Jiménez