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Consult vs Communicate - What's the difference?

consult | communicate |

As verbs the difference between consult and communicate

is that consult is to seek the opinion or advice of another; to take counsel; to deliberate together; to confer while communicate is to impart.

As a noun consult

is (obsolete): the act of consulting or deliberating; consultation; also, the result of consultation; determination; decision.

consult

English

Alternative forms

* consultation (Only noun form in UK)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete): The act of consulting or deliberating; consultation; also, the result of consultation; determination; decision.
  • The council broke; And all grave consults dissolved in smoke. -.
  • (obsolete): A council; a meeting for consultation.
  • A consult of coquettes. -.
  • (obsolete): Agreement; concert.
  • (US): A visit, e.g. to a doctor; a consultation.
  • Usage notes

    * The noun consult is avoided in British English, favoring consultation instead. In AmE, they are merely synonyms.

    Synonyms

    * consultation

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To seek the opinion or advice of another; to take counsel; to deliberate together; to confer.
  • Let us consult upon to-morrow's business. -
    All the laws of England have been made by the kings of England, consulting with the nobility and commons. - .
  • To advise or offer expertise.
  • To work as a consultant or contractor rather than as a full-time employee of a firm.
  • To ask advice of; to seek the opinion of; to apply to for information or instruction; to refer to; as, to consult a physician; to consult a dictionary.
  • Men forgot, or feared, to consult''' ... ; they were content to '''consult libraries. - .
  • To have reference to, in judging or acting; to have regard to; to consider; as, to consult one's wishes.
  • We are ... to consult the necessities of life, rather than matters of ornament and delight. -L'Estrange.
  • (obsolete): To deliberate upon; to take for.
  • Many things were there consulted for the future, yet nothing was positively resolved. -.
  • (obsolete): To bring about by counsel or contrivance; to devise; to contrive.
  • Thou hast consulted shame to thy use by cutting off many people. - Bible, Heb. ii. 10.

    communicate

    English

    Verb

    (communicat)
  • To impart
  • # To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) (to) someone; to make known, to tell.
  • It is vital that I communicate this information to you.
  • # To impart or transmit (an intangible quantity, substance); to give a share of.
  • to communicate motion by means of a crank
  • #* Jeremy Taylor
  • Where God is worshipped, there he communicates his blessings and holy influences.
  • # To pass on (a disease) to another person, animal etc.
  • The disease was mainly communicated via rats and other vermin.
  • To share
  • # (obsolete) To share (in); to have in common, to partake of.
  • We shall now consider those functions of intelligence which man communicates with the higher beasts.
  • #* Ben Jonson
  • thousands that communicate our loss
  • # (Christianity) To receive the bread and wine at a celebration of the Eucharist; to take part in Holy Communion.
  • #* 1971 , , Religion and the Decline of Magic , Folio Society 2012, p. 148:
  • The ‘better sort’ might communicate on a separate day; and in some parishes even the quality of the communion wine varied with the social quality of the recipients.
  • # (Christianity) To administer the Holy Communion to (someone).
  • #* Jeremy Taylor
  • She [the church] may communicate him.
  • # To express or convey ideas, either through verbal or nonverbal means; to have intercourse, to exchange information.
  • Many deaf people communicate with sign language.
  • I feel I hardly know him; I just wish he'd communicate with me a little more.
  • # To be connected (with) (another room, vessel etc.) by means of an opening or channel.
  • The living room communicates with the back garden by these French windows.
  • Hyponyms

    * See also