Council

//ˈkaʊn.səl// name, noun

name, noun ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).

    "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."

  2. 2
    a meeting of people for consultation wordnet
  3. 3
    A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).; A local authority. UK, metonymically
  4. 4
    a body serving in an administrative capacity wordnet
  5. 5
    Discussion or deliberation.

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

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    (Christianity) an assembly of theologians and bishops and other representatives of different churches or dioceses that is convened to regulate matters of discipline or doctrine wordnet
  2. 7
    Short for church council abbreviation, alt-of

    "the First Council of Nicaea"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
  2. 2
    A male given name.
  3. 3
    A small city, the county seat of Adams County, Idaho, United States.

Synonyms

All synonyms
administrationadmonitionadvisoryadvisory counciladvocacyalliance

Example

More examples

"The environment was the focus of student council activities."

Etymology

From Middle English counseil, conseil, from late Old English cuncile, from Anglo-Norman cuncile and Old French concile, from Latin concilium. Doublet of concelho.

Related phrases

Council BluffsCouncil GroveHebdomadal CouncilSecurity CouncilWhitley councilafforced councilborough councilcanine councilchurch councilcity councilcouncil areacouncil communism

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.