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• 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.

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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

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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.

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Etymology

Origin of foreign service

First recorded in 1925–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foreign service Foreign Service

Mr. Kroenig is a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of “Exporting the Bomb: Technology Transfer and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

And then they tell the career civil servants and foreign service officers and military people, “This is what we want to get at the negotiating table. How do we do that?”

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2025

Once in a great while, a diplomatic memorandum—the outline of a proposed change in policy sent from a foreign service officer to his political masters back in Washington—has momentous impact.

From Slate ● Dec. 23, 2024

Consulate in Paris, though he had no experience in the foreign service.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2024

"How is it that, being already wounded, you come so far to seek fresh wounds in a foreign service?"

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 369, July 1846 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

It’s one of the reasons, aside from shame, why I decided to join the Foreign Service.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides