Meaning & use
consulting room
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableBritish
A room in a clinic, hospital, or practice where a doctor or other professional meets and examines patients or clients.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a consulting room' or 'two consulting rooms'.
Patterns
- in the consulting room
- the doctor's consulting room
The nurse showed me into a small consulting room and asked me to sit down.
He keeps his certificates framed on the wall of his consulting room.
Patients usually wait outside until the doctor calls them into the consulting room.
Word forms
| plural | consulting rooms |
|---|
Common combinations
- in the consulting room
- The doctor spent the whole morning in the consulting room.
- a private consulting room
- The clinic has three private consulting rooms on the ground floor.
- the doctor's consulting room
- Please go straight to the doctor's consulting room.
- a well-equipped consulting room
- They moved into a well-equipped consulting room near the station.
Synonyms and how they differ
- exam room
- The common American term for the same place; use it in US contexts rather than 'consulting room'.
- surgery
- In British English this can mean a doctor's room or the whole practice, but it is broader and can also mean an operation.
- office
- In American English a doctor's 'office' is the whole practice or the room where patients are seen; it is less specific than 'consulting room'.
Word family
- consult verb
- To ask a doctor or expert for advice, or to look something up.
- consultation noun
- A meeting with a doctor or expert to get advice.
- consultant noun
- A senior doctor or a professional who gives expert advice.
Commonly confused: consulting room or waiting room?
consulting room vs waiting room
A waiting room is where patients sit before being seen; the consulting room is where the doctor actually examines them.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'consulting room' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
A consulting room is where a doctor sees patients, so sentence 1 fits. The others describe places for eating, holidays, or sport, which do not match a medical setting.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “consulting room”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.