council
/ˈkaʊn.səl/noun, verb
council is spelled C-O-U-N-C-I-L. The wrong spelling people search most is coucil: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 196 of all searches for the word. Council is a noun meaning “A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council)”. The plural of council is councils.
How many letters and syllables are in council?
| Letters | 7: C-O-U-N-C-I-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 120 times per million words; the 873rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, coucil, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell council?
Council is spelled C-O-U-N-C-I-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 197 of the searches for council in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is council?
Council appears 120 times per million words in written English, the 873rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce council?
- /ˈkaʊn.səl/
- /ˈkuːn.səl/
Council has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-council.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with council
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: counsel (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of council
- councils plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- counciling US, participle, present
- councilling UK, participle, present
- counciled US, participle, past
- councilled UK, participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does council mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A committee that leads or governs (e.g. city council, student council).
- 2
UKA local authority.
- 3
Discussion or deliberation.
- 4
Short for church council
the First Council of Nicaea
verb
- 1
To sit in council with; to hold discussions with.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate council?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of council: coun.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Council in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense committee that leads or governs:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does council come from?
Inherited from Middle English counseil (“meeting, conference, commune”), from Old French conseil (“advice, deliberation, thought”), from Latin cōnsilium (“plan, intention, design, purpose”), from cōnsulō (“consult, seek counsel from, take counsel from, deliberate, reflect”), from Proto-Indo-European *selh₁- (“take, grab”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).