consultant
noun
Simple meaning
A person paid for their expert advice or help in a field
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhnsuhltuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kənˈsʌltənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A person whose occupation is to be consulted for their expertise, advice, service or help in an area or specialty; a party whose business is to be similarly consulted.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person whose occupation is to be consulted for their expertise, advice, service or help in an area or specialty; a party whose business is to be similarly consulted.
Used this way, consultant is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in business or professional contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Business/professional
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Senior
Other combinations
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Someone who gives you advice about your personal appearance.
Someone who advises you about fashionable clothing.
Adviser to business about efficient management practices.
Someone who advises about the use of communication media.
An adviser about alarm systems to prevent burglaries.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- advisornoun
- advisernoun
- specialistnoun
- consultancynoun
- firmnoun
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “consultant” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.