Definition of: council

(koun′səl) noun
1. An assembly of persons convened for consultation or deliberation: a council of physicians.
2. A body of men elected or appointed to assist in the administration of government, as of a city, or to legislate and advise, as in a territory or colony.
3. The deliberation or consultation that takes place in a council chamber: summoned from council.
4. A gathering of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical dignitaries and scholars, for the purpose of discussing and regulating matters of church doctrine and discipline: distinguished as diocesan (led by the bishop), provincial (led by the archbishop), national (led by the primate or patriarch), general (led by the Pope or papal legate), and ecumenical (world–wide) councils.
5. The Sanhedrin.
—common council A municipal, legislative body; also, a coordinate branch of such a body, called a city council.
—general council
1. A council made up of delegates representative of the whole of a certain territory or organization, as the British Parliament.
2. The deliberative body of a Scottish university.
3. The administrative board of Oxford University, properly known as the Hebdomadal Council. ♦ Homophone: counsel. [<OF cuncile <L concilium <com- together + calare call]