consortium

noun con·sor·tium \ kən-ˈsȯr-sh(ē-)əm , -ˈsȯr-tē-əm \

Definition of consortium

plural consortia play \kən-ˈsȯr-sh(ē-)ə, -ˈsȯr-tē-ə\ also consortiums

1 :an agreement, combination, or group (as of companies) formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member

A consortium of researchers decoded the honeybee genome.

2 :association, society

3 :the legal right of one spouse to the company, affection, and assistance of and to sexual relations with the other

See consortium defined for English-language learners

Examples of consortium in a Sentence

A Japanese consortium invested millions in the technology.
a consortium for the prevention of animal cruelty

Recent Examples of consortium from the Web

The board is also considering an offer from a consortium led by Shervin Pishevar, an early Uber investor, to buy shares.

— mike isaac and tiffany hsu, New York Times, "Uber, Mired in Corporate Scandals, Sees Uptick in Bookings," 23 Aug. 2017
A consortium of south suburban fire departments on Wednesday opened the region's first firefighter candidate testing center, a major step toward aligning local hiring practices with national standards.

— zak koeske, Daily Southtown, "Testing facility for firefighter candidates opens in Homewood," 26 July 2017
Mexico’s energy reform is starting to pay off, at last, with a big new oil discovery by an international consortium.

— The Economist, "Latin America’s disappointing economic growth," 20 July 2017
Storing is not boring In Asia’s biggest buy-out to date, a Chinese consortium offered S$16bn ($11.6bn) for Global Logistic Properties, which is based in Singapore and is one of the world’s biggest warehousing companies.

— The Economist, "Business this week," 20 July 2017
The winning group edged out a rival consortium led by Warburg Pincus, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

— pooja thakur mahrotri, Bloomberg.com, "Singapore Warehouse Giant Sells to Chinese Bidder for Record $11.6 Billion," 14 July 2017
The data analysis comes from the Climate Impact Lab, a consortium of climate researchers from UC Berkeley, Rutgers, University of Chicago, and other institutions.

— shanika gunaratna, CBS News, "Here's where climate change will hit the U.S. the hardest," 29 June 2017
A spokesman for the consortium of contractors that operates Los Alamos referred questions about Anderson’s reported actions to the NNSA, whose spokesman didn’t address those specific questions.

— patrick malone, Science | AAAS, "A near-disaster at a federal nuclear weapons," 29 June 2017
E-commerce operator JD.com Inc. and an arm of Ping An Insurance Group Co. of China are in talks to join the consortium, along with property developer China Vanke Co., one person said.

— joyce koh, Bloomberg.com, "Singapore State Fund Said to Confront Complaints in Sale of GLP," 27 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'consortium.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of consortium

Latin, fellowship, from consort-, consors — see ¹consort

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1829

See Words from the same year

consortium Synonyms

Synonyms

board, brotherhood, chamber, club, college, congress, association, council, fellowship, fraternity, guild (also gild), institute, institution, league, order, organization, society, sodality

Related Words

collective, commune, community, cooperative; alliance, bloc, camp, coalition, partnership; body, cadre, group; circle, clan, clique, coterie, junta, junto, klatch (also klatsch), lot, set; crew, outfit, party, squad, team; branch, chapter, local; faithful, fold, membership; sisterhood, sorority; cabal, camarilla, camorra, confederacy, conspiracy; band, gang, ring; cartel, combine, syndicate

Other Business Terms

amortize, caveat emptor, clearinghouse, divest, due diligence, emolument, green-collar, marque, overhead, perquisite

CONSORTIUM Defined for English Language Learners

consortium

noun

Definition of consortium for English Language Learners

: a group of people, companies, etc., that agree to work together

Law Dictionary

consortium

noun con·sor·tium \ kən-ˈsȯr-shəm; -shē-əm \

legal Definition of consortium

plural consortia play \-shə, -shē-ə\ also consortiums

1 :an agreement, combination, or group (as of companies) formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member

[Medieval Latin, marital partnership, from Latin]

:the right of one spouse to the company, affection, and assistance of and to sexual relations with the other; also :the right of a parent or child to the company, affection, and assistance of the other