embassy

noun

em·bas·sy ˈem-bə-sē

plural embassies

Synonyms of embassy next

: a body of diplomatic representatives

specifically : one headed by an ambassador

: the function or position of an ambassador

: a mission abroad undertaken officially especially by an ambassador

: embassage sense 1

: the official residence and offices of an ambassador

Examples of embassy in a Sentence

Protesters marched outside the American embassy.

Recent Examples on the Web Israel considers Jerusalem its capital, but most countries’ embassies are located in Tel Aviv. —

WSJ, 7 Sep. 2023 After spending 20 years as a housekeeper for the American embassy and the Peace Corps in Gambia, Sally Demba immigrated with her family to the United States in 2007. —

Chelsea Brasted, Southern Living, 23 Aug. 2023 In 2015, under then-President Barack Obama, the U.S. began to normalize relations with Cuba and reopened the U.S. embassy in Havana. —

Cesar Brioso, USA TODAY, 14 Aug. 2023 In case of a disaster, local embassies know to alert and look for you. —

Hannah Sampson, Andrea Sachs and Sofia Andrade, Anchorage Daily News, 12 Aug. 2023 The bureau asked anyone with information about Worrell’s whereabouts to contact their local FBI office or the nearest American embassy or consulate. —

Tobi Raji, Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2023 Getting visas can also be a challenge for many visitors to China, requiring going to an embassy or application center to queue — sometimes for several hours — and submit documents, and then returning days later to collect them. —

Time, 17 Aug. 2023 Her and her child were abducted on the same day that the U.S. State Department ordered non-emergency embassy personnel and their families to evacuate Haiti due to a deteriorating security situation that has seen gangs take control of large parts of Port-au-Prince. —

Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 9 Aug. 2023 The United States followed suit and suspended $100 million in financial support, paused security cooperation and issued a partial pullout of embassy personnel. —

Miriam Berger, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Aug. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'embassy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

probably alteration (by substitution of the suffix -y entry 2) of embassade, variant (with em- after embassador "ambassador" and other derivatives based on Romance forms with em- em- replacing am- of ambassade,) going back to Middle English ambassiat, ambassiad, ambassate, ambassade "office of an ambassador, diplomatic mission, persons trusted with such a mission," borrowed from Anglo-French ambassiate, ambassade "diplomatic mission" and Middle French ambassade, ambaxade "diplomatic or political mission, persons sent on such a mission, ambassador," borrowed from Italian (13th-century) ambasciata "diplomatic mission, official message," borrowed from Old Occitan ambayssada "diplomatic mission," earlier ambayssat "message," derivatives (with the suffixes of action and result -at, -ada) of *ambaissa, going back to Late Latin ambascia, ambassia "mission, errand, task, journey," borrowed from Germanic *ambahtja- "service, office" (whence Old English ambiht, embiht "service, ministry," Old Saxon ambaht "office, service," Old High German ambahti "commission, task, obligation, service," Old Icelandic embætti "service, office, task," Gothic andbahti "office, service, assistance"), derivative of *ambahtjōn- or *ambahta- "servant, follower" (whence Old English ombiht, embiht "servant, attendant, officer," Old Saxon ambahtio "servant," Old High German ambaht "servant, holder of a spiritual or lay office," Old Icelandic ambátt "bondwoman, female servant," Gothic andbahts "servant"), borrowed from Celtic *ambaχto- (whence Welsh amaeth "plowman, tillage," Gaulish *ambaktos, in Latin texts as ambactus "servant"), agentive noun from the verbal adjective of *ambi-ag-, whence Old Irish imm‧aig "(s/he) drives around, pursues," going back to Indo-European *h₂m̥b^hi "around" + *h₂eǵ- "drive" — more at -ade, ambient entry 1, agent

Note: Romance and Medieval Latin forms show frequent fluctuation between initial am- and em- in this family of words; this is conditioned by the replacement of am- by the more transparent verb-forming prefix em-, and perhaps in part also by the homonymy of the two suffixes in medieval French. The form embassy competed in early Modern English with ambassy, but the latter apparently declined by the eighteenth century. Samuel Johnson noted in his dictionary (1755) that "our authors write almost indiscriminately embassador or ambassador, embassage or ambassage; yet there is scarce an example of ambassy, all concurring to write embassy." — The hypothesis that Italian ambasciata represents a loan from Old Occitan rather than a direct borrowing from spoken Latin *ambactiāta or from Germanic is based on phonetic developments in Italian: the cluster -kti̯- regularly results in -cci- (tracciare "to trace, mark out," from *tractiāre) or -zz- (drizzare "to direct," from *dīrectiāre), but not -sci-. — As noted by Ernout and Meillet (Dictionaire étymologique de la langue latine), the word ambactus is not naturalized in Latin ("Mot étranger—non pas mot d'emprunt"). Its use is attributed to the early Roman author Ennius by the grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus: "apud Ennium lingua gallica seruus appellatur … seruus ambactus, i.e. circumactus dicitur" (in the work of Ennius servus ["slave, servant"] is called [by a word in] Gaulish …servus is ambactus, that is to say, "one who is made to go around"); ambactus is not, however, attested in the extant fragments of Ennius's poetry. More light is thrown on the word by Julius Caesar, who uses the word in describing Gaulish social structure (De bello Gallico, 6.15.2): "… atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habet." ("And as each of them [the equites = "knights," as opposed to the druids and the commoners] is distinguished by birth or resources, so he maintains around himself the greater number of ambacti and clients.") Here the word more likely means "follower" or "vassal" than "servant" or "slave," corresponding to its meaning in Germanic ("servant," but also "person fulfilling an official function"). These senses underly the rich development of the word in Romance languages. The Welsh word amaeth "plowman," however, retains what must have been the original meaning of the deverbal derivative, "one who drives (a plowing ox) around."