council

See also: Council

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English counseil, from Old French conseil, from late Latin cōnsilium; with the spelling in -c- adopted after Latin concilium in Early Modern English, though some senses of counseil were influenced by Old French concile, a semi-learned borrowing from concilium. Doublet of concelho and counsel.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kounʹ-səl, IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊn.səl/
• (Northumbria) IPA^(key): /ˈkuːn.səl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊnsəl
• Homophone: counsel

Noun

council (plural councils)

2. A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.

   • 2024 November 2, Maryse Zeidler, “Hereditary chiefs slam Vancouver Island city council for remarks on restoring Indigenous place names”, in CBC News‎^[1]:

     The comments were made at a council meeting last month, during which one councillor questioned whether changing the names would be pushing reconciliation efforts along too quickly. […] At a city council meeting on Oct. 8, Campbell River councillors discussed a letter sent by the B.C. Geographical Names Office inviting comments on the name changes.

   1. (UK, metonymic) A local authority.
3. Discussion or deliberation.
   • 2008 [1667], John Milton, chapter 6, in W. Kerrigan, J. Rumrich, S. Fallon, editors, Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics) (poetry), Random House Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 212, lines 414–416:

     Satan […] void of rest, / His potentates to council called by night;

   • 1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book IV”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     O great in action and in council wise.

4. (Christianity) Short for church council

   Synonym: synod

   the First Council of Nicaea

Hyponyms

• afforced council
• borough council
• canine council
• church council
• city council
• community council
• council of war
• county council
• district council
• domestic policy council
• ecumenical council
• federal council
• kennel council
• local council
• minority council
• parish council
• parochial church council
• privy council
• soviet
• spokescouncil
• student council
• subcouncil
• supercouncil
• town council
• unitary council
• Whitley council
• works council

Derived terms

• afforced council
• anticouncil
• borough council
• canine council
• church council
• city council
• council area
• Council Bluffs
• council communism
• council estate
• Council Grove
• council house
• council-housed
• council housing
• council housing estate
• councilism
• councilist
• councillor, councilor
• councilman
• councilmate
• councilmember
• council of war
• councilperson
• council pop
• council tax
• councilwoman
• county council
• district council
• domestic policy council
• ecumenical council
• federal council
• Hebdomadal Council
• intercouncil
• kennel council
• local council
• mayor-council
• minority council
• order-in-council
• order in council
• order of council
• parish council
• parochial church council
• particular council
• plenary council
• privy council
• provincial council
• Security Council
• spokescouncil
• student council
• subcouncil
• town council
• unitary council
• Whitley council
• works council

Related terms

• conciliate
• reconcile

Translations

committee that leads or governs

• Albanian: këshill (sq) m
• Arabic: مَجْلِس m (majlis), مَجْمَع (ar) m (majmaʕ)
• Armenian: խորհուրդ (hy) (xorhurd)
• Asturian: conceyu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: şura, məclis (az)
• Belarusian: ра́да f (ráda)
• Bengali: মজলিস (bn) (mojoliś), পরিষদ (bn) (poriśod)
• Breton: kuzul (br) m
• Bulgarian: съве́т (bg) m (sǎvét)
• Burmese: ကောင်စီ (my) (kaungci)
• Catalan: consell (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 理事會 / 理事会 (zh) (lǐshìhuì), 委員會 / 委员会 (zh) (wěiyuánhuì), 市政廳 / 市政厅 (zh) (shìzhèngtīng) (city council)

• Coptic: ⲙⲁⲛϩⲉⲙⲥⲓ m (manhemsi)
• Cornish: konsel
• Czech: rada (cs) f, zastupitelstvo (cs) n
• Danish: råd n
• Dutch: raad (nl) m
• Egyptian: (ḏꜣḏꜣt f)
• Esperanto: konsilio (eo)
• Estonian: nõukogu
• Finnish: neuvosto (fi), valtuusto (fi)
• French: conseil (fr) m
• Galician: consello (gl) m
• Georgian: საბჭო (sabč̣o)
• German: Rat (de) m
• Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳𐍃 f (gafaurds)
• Greek: συμβούλιο (el) n (symvoúlio)

  Ancient Greek: συνέδριον n (sunédrion)

• Hausa: majalisa (ha)
• Hebrew: מוֹעָצָה (he) f (mo'atsá)
• Hindi: परिषद (hi) m (pariṣad), मजलिस (hi) f (majlis)
• Hungarian: tanács (hu)
• Icelandic: ráð (is) n
• Indonesian: dewan (id), konsil (id), majelis (id)
• Interlingua: consilio, concilio
• Italian: consiglio (it) m
• Japanese: 評議会 (ja) (ひょうぎかい, hyōgikai), 協議会 (ja) (きょうぎかい, kyōgikai)
• Karakalpak: keńes
• Kazakh: кеңес (kk) (keñes), мәжіліс (mäjılıs)
• Khakas: чӧп (çöp)
• Khmer: សភា (km) (saʼphiə)
• Korean: 이사회(理事會) (isahoe), 평의회(評議會) (ko) (pyeong'uihoe)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: ئەنجومەن (encumen)

  Northern Kurdish: konsey (ku)

• Kyrgyz: кеңеш (ky) (keŋeş), мажилис (majilis)
• Lao: ສະພາ (sa phā)
• Latin: consilium n
• Latvian: dome f, padome f
• Limburgish: raod (li) m
• Lithuanian: taryba (lt) f
• Macedonian: совет m (sovet)
• Malay: majlis (ms), dewan (ms)
• Maltese: kunsill m
• Māori: rūnanga
• Middle English: counseil
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: зөвлөл (mn) (zövlöl)

• Norman: conseil m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: råd (no) n

  Nynorsk: råd n

• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: вѣще n (věšte), съвѣтъ m (sŭvětŭ)

• Old East Slavic: вѣче n (věče), рада f (rada), съвѣтъ m (sŭvětŭ)
• Old English: samnung f, ġemōt n, gaderung f
• Old Leonese: concello m, conceio
• Pashto: شورا (ps) f (šorã), مجلس m (majləs)
• Persian:

  Dari: شُورَا (fa) (šūrā), مَجْلِس (fa) (majlis)

  Iranian Persian: شُورا (fa) (šowrâ), مَجْلِس (fa) (majles)

• Polish: rada (pl)
• Portuguese: conselho (pt) m
• Romanian: sfat (ro) n, consiliu (ro) n
• Russian: сове́т (ru) m (sovét)
• Sanskrit: परिषद् (sa) f (pariṣad)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: са́вјет m (Ijekavian), са́вет m (Ekavian), вије́ће n (Ijekavian), ве́ће n (Ekavian)

  Latin: sávjet (sh) m (Ijekavian), sávet (sh) m (Ekavian), vijéće n (Ijekavian), véće n (Ekavian)

• Sicilian: cunzigghiu (scn) m, junta (scn) f
• Slovak: rada f, zastupiteľstvo n
• Slovene: svet (sl) m
• Spanish: concejo (es) m, concilio (es) m
• Swahili: kikao (sw), baraza (sw) class 9/10
• Swedish: råd (sv) n, styrelse (sv) c
• Tagalog: sanggunian
• Tajik: шӯро (šüro), маҷлис (majlis)
• Tatar: мәҗлис (mäclis)
• Thai: สภา (th) (sà-paa)
• Tocharian B: wertsiya
• Turkish: konsey (tr), meclis (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: مجلس (meclis), مشورت (meşveret)

• Turkmen: geňeş, mejlis
• Tuvan: чөвүлел (çövülel)
• Udmurt: кенеш (keńeš)
• Ugaritic: 𐎔𐎃𐎗 (pḫr)
• Ukrainian: ра́да (uk) f (ráda)
• Urdu: مَجْلِس f (majlis), اَنْجُمَنْ (ur) f (anjuman), کَونْسِل (kaunsil)
• Uyghur: كېڭەش (kë'ngesh), مەجلىس (mejlis)

  Cyrillic: кеңәш (kë'ngesh)

• Uzbek: kengash (uz), majlis (uz)
• Vietnamese: hội đồng (vi) (會同)
• Welsh: cyngor (cy) m
• Yiddish: ראַט m (rat), ראָט m (rot)

local authority — see municipality

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} koncilio

See also

• counsel (homophonous; not to be confused)
• syndicate