Consult

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒnsʌlt/

Definitions

1. To seek advice, information, or professional guidance from someone with expertise in a particular matter
2. To approach a knowledgeable person to obtain guidance or recommendations
3. To request professional opinions or facts from an authority on a subject

Etymology: The verb "consult" carries a surprising earlier sense of deliberating together rather than asking an expert. Its Latin ancestor "cōnsulō" meant to take counsel, to deliberate, or to ask someone's opinion, and the Latin supine "cōnsultum" gave rise to a noun for a decision reached after deliberation. Those ideas of weighing a matter with others sit at the core of the English word, which is why it can describe a group of people reasoning something through as much as an individual asking a specialist. The word reached English through Middle French "consulter," which was itself built from the Latin base. Its meaning drifted from a shared act of deliberation toward the more one-sided idea of seeking guidance from someone else, and that shift is what the modern verb records: a patient consults a doctor, a company consults a lawyer.

Synonyms: advise, confer, discuss, seek advice, refer

Antonyms: ignore, dismiss, overlook, neglect, shun