Consortium

How to spell consortium

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce consortium

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consortium mean?

1. nounAn association of several companies, institutions, or other parties formed to undertake a shared venture.

Consortium in a sentence

• A consortium of banks agreed to finance the new airport.

• The research consortium pooled funding from five universities.

Where does consortium come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from Latin, where consortium meant 'partnership' or 'fellowship', literally a community of people who share a common lot. It was built from consors, meaning 'a partner' or 'one who shares', which joins con- 'together' with sors, sortis, the Latin word for a 'lot', 'share', or even 'fate'. That same sors root lies behind the English words 'sort' and 'sorcery', the latter through the idea of casting lots to read destiny. English adopted consortium in the early 1800s, chiefly as a legal and commercial term for an association of companies or institutions joining forces for a shared venture. The spelling trap is the ending: the '-tium' is pronounced like 'shum', so writers who spell by ear may reach for an 's' where the Latin 't' belongs.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• sort (from Latin sors, sortis: lot, share, fate)
• -ium (Latin noun suffix)