Foreign Service
14
4.4
- noun
- /ˈfɔrɪn ˈsɜrvɪs/
- US
:
Servicio Exterior (de EE. UU.)
- Today, the Foreign Service has largely retreated into fortress embassies located far from city centers.
- Foreign Service officer
- career in Foreign Service
- U.S. Foreign Service
So one of them went to work as just sort of a normal foreign service officer.
- So one of them went to work as just sort of a normal foreign service officer.
- And during that time, my mom applied to the foreign service and it was really like, it's a very difficult job to get.
- Robert Ford is a career Foreign Service officer and a career Arabist.
Examples
-
I started my foreign service there.
-
Sydney Parade had worked for a foundation while Dicky Rostok was a foreign service officer, as was I.
Fiction book (1999) -
All my life, I wanted to be in the foreign service.
-
A former lawyer, he entered the Foreign Service in 1991 at the age of 31.
Blog text (2) -
Robert Ford is a career Foreign Service officer and a career Arabist.
-
Our State Department and their Foreign Service have exchanged apologies for the 'regrettable incident.'
Fiction book (2000) -
Then, with his usual exquisite sense of timing, he resigned from the foreign service and went home.
Fiction book (1999) -
Becoming a great Foreign Service officer means mastering the conduct of diplomacy and reporting, not action and management.
Academic text (2013) -
But the Bush administration has shortchanged the Foreign Service and has thus directly undermined its own key foreign policy initiative.
Academic text (2009) -
Many diplomats dedicate their careers to the Foreign Service to promote U.S. interests abroad.
Synonyms
1
5.6
Government officials who represent their country abroad, for example ambassadors
How Large
- US
14
4.4
- Formal
574
3.3
- Specialized
13
3.9
- Formal
223
3.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'foreign' (relating to other countries) plus 'service' (a branch or organization providing a public function) yields an organization that handles foreign/diplomatic matters. The pattern 'X service' meaning the service/agency concerned with X is common across languages and English, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would very likely infer this meaning.
Etymology
Foreign Service may come from the simple idea of government people who serve in foreign countries. They work in embassies and consulates to 'represent' their country abroad, so the phrase means the group of diplomats and staff who work overseas.