embassy

noun

em·​bas·​sy ˈem-bə-sē 

plural embassies

1

: a body of diplomatic representatives

specifically : one headed by an ambassador

2

a

: the function or position of an ambassador

b

: a mission abroad undertaken officially especially by an ambassador

3

: embassage sense 1

4

: 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

Iran's leaders have vowed to attack Israel after an airstrike in Damascus on the Iranian embassy compound killed seven Iranians. —Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY, 12 Apr. 2024

According to El País, the group had shot one embassy guard. —Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald, 10 Apr. 2024

That conflict has taken on new urgency this month, risking a broader conflict in the Middle East, as Iran vowed to retaliate for an Israeli strike on an embassy compound that killed seven Iranian armed forces commanders. —Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2024

Now, the focus is on the Middle East and how Iran will respond to last week’s deadly airstrike on its embassy complex in Syria. —Matt Egan, CNN, 8 Apr. 2024

Ecuadorian police late Friday broke through the external doors of the embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been residing there since December. —Cnn.com Wire Service, The Mercury News, 6 Apr. 2024

On April 1, Israeli warplanes attacked a building in Damascus that is part of the Iranian embassy there, killing seven senior figures in the Iranian military. —Jon B. Alterman, Foreign Affairs, 3 Apr. 2024

Israel bombed Iran’s embassy in Syria on Monday, killing seven military advisers, and Iran has vowed to retaliate after the strike. —Will Daniel, Fortune, 3 Apr. 2024

An Israeli airstrike hit a building next to Iran’s embassy in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday, killing two senior members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian state media reported, a significant escalation in a region that continues to be roiled by the war in Gaza. —Mohamad El Chamaa, Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2024

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."

First Known Use

1549, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Kids Definition

embassy

noun

em·​bas·​sy ˈem-bə-sē 

plural embassies

1

: a group of representatives headed by an ambassador

2

: the position, role, or business of an ambassador

3

: the residence or office of an ambassador