Council or counsel?
council is a noun meaning “A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council)”; counsel is a noun meaning “The exchange of opinions and advice especially in legal issues; consultation”. They sound the same (/ˈkaʊn.səl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) council is about 8.3 times as common as counsel.
What is the difference between council and counsel?
| council | counsel | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council) UKA local authority To sit in council with; to hold discussions with | The exchange of opinions and advice especially in legal issues; consultation Exercise of judgment; prudence To give advice, especially professional advice, to (somebody) |
| Example | the First Council of Nicaea | The lawyer counselled his client to remain silent |
| Forms | councils | counsels |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkaʊn.səl/ /ˈkuːn.səl/ | /ˈkaʊn.səl/ |
| In writing | 120 times per million words | 14 times per million words |
Sources: council and counsel in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of council and counsel
council
- 1
A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council)
- 2
To sit in council with; to hold discussions with
- 3
UKA local authority
- 4
Discussion or deliberation
- 5
Short for church council
the First Council of Nicaea
counsel
- 1
The exchange of opinions and advice especially in legal issues; consultation
- 2
To give advice, especially professional advice, to (somebody)
The lawyer counselled his client to remain silent
- 3
Exercise of judgment; prudence
- 4
To recommend (a course of action)
I would counsel prudence in this matter
- 5
Advice; guidance
- 6
Deliberate purpose; design; intent; scheme; plan
- 7
A lawyer, as in King's Counsel (KC) or Queen's Counsel (QC)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, council or counsel?
council appears 120 times per million words; counsel 14 times per million words.
council 120 times per million wordscounsel 14 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search council vs counsel?
“council vs counsel” is searched about 9,900 times a month on Google and 630 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“counsel vs council”, “council or counsel”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.