syndicate
n. countablen. a group of people or companies that work together to achieve a common goal. They often pool their money or resources to buy something expensive or run a business.
n. a group of individuals or organisations combined to promote a common interest or carry out a specific business transaction. Often involves the collective underwriting of a financial risk or the joint purchase of assets.
A local syndicate won the lottery last week.
The development project was funded by a syndicate of international banks to spread the financial risk.
The investigative journalists discovered that a powerful crime syndicate had been laundering money through a series of offshore shell companies for over a decade.
Anglicized from French syndicat (“office of a syndic; board of syndics; trade union”) on the basis of -ate (forms nouns denoting rank or office, a group formed of people of this same office), equivalent to syndic (“syndic; representative; (especially) chief magistrate of Geneva”) + -at (“-ate”, forms nouns denoting rank or office), from Medieval Latin *syndicātus, from syndicus (“representative of a corporation or town; syndic”) (from Ancient Greek σύνδικος (súndikos, “advocate for a defendant”), from σύν (sún, “beside; with”) + δίκη (díkē, “judgment; justice”)) + -ātus (“-ate”). By surface analysis, syndic + -ate. Compare Italian sindacato (“syndicate; trade union; audit, control, supervision”), Occitan sendegat, Portuguese sindicato (“trade union”), Spanish sindicado, sindicato (“office of a syndic; syndicate; trade union”).
From the noun or French syndiquer, either on the basis of -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Often followed by the preposition 'of' to describe the members, such as 'a syndicate of investors'.