consultant
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
a person whose job is to give expert advice to a company or organization about a particular subject.
a professional who provides expert advice or services in a particular field of expertise to a third party for a fee.
Simple“The company hired a marketing consultant to help them reach younger customers.”
In context“After the merger, the board brought in an independent consultant to evaluate the efficiency of the new organizational structure.”
UsageOften used with 'on' or 'for' to specify the field of expertise.
Synonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
a very senior doctor in a hospital who has a lot of experience in a specific area of medicine.
a senior hospital-based physician or surgeon who has completed specialist training and holds the highest clinical rank.
Simple“The consultant told me that I would need a small operation on my knee.”
In context“The surgical consultant led the multidisciplinary team during the complex procedure, overseeing both the registrars and the nursing staff.”
Teacher's tipIn American English, this role is usually called an 'attending physician' or simply a 'specialist'.
Synonymsspecialistattending physician
“Alexander Ionides, a consultant eye surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London says if you have damaged your eyes, the symptoms will start to come on within a few hours.”
“It comes after consultants and specialist doctors went on strike last week - the first time for these two groups of doctors in Northern Ireland.”
From French consultant, present participle of consulter, from Latin cōnsultāre (“to deliberate, consult”), frequentative of cōnsulere (“to consult, deliberate, consider, reflect upon, ask advice”), from com- (“together”) + -sulere, of uncertain origin.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.