Consulate

How to spell consulate

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce consulate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does consulate mean?

1. nounThe official residence or offices of a consul, where a country handles passports, visas, and the welfare of its citizens abroad.

Consulate in a sentence

• After losing her passport, she queued for hours at the consulate in Rome.

• The consulate issued an urgent travel advisory for the region.

Where does consulate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin consulatus, meaning the office or term of a consul, the title held by the two chief magistrates who governed the Roman Republic each year. That title, consul, may derive from consulere, 'to take counsel' or 'to consult', the very same root that gives us the modern words 'counsel' and 'consult', reflecting the consul's role as the state's chief adviser and decision maker. English took the word in through Old French during the late Middle Ages, at first to describe the Roman magistracy and its term of office. Over the following centuries the sense broadened so that a consul became an official posted abroad to protect a country's citizens and trade, and the consulate became that official's office or the building from which the work is done. The unstressed second syllable, where the 'u' is barely sounded, is the spelling trap, but remembering the link to 'consul' keeps the vowel in place.

How the word is built

• consul (Latin consul: a chief magistrate)
• -ate (noun suffix denoting an office or its premises)