# corporate

Pronunciation: US say "KOR-pur-uht" /ˈkɔɹ.pəɹ.ət/; UK say "KAW-puh-ruht" /ˈkɔː.pə.ɹət/

## Adjective

1. Having to do with a corporation or its business activities.
   - Simple: Belonging to or having to do with a business company, especially a large one.
   - _The merger triggered a major shift in corporate strategy._
   - _Employees pushed back against the strict new corporate dress code._
5. Bland, sanitized, and lacking character, in the way products from a large company often feel. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Dull and lifeless, like a safe, polished design made by a big company.
   - _The album's glossy, corporate sound left longtime fans cold._
   - _Critics called the redesign soulless and corporate, stripped of any local charm._
4. Established as a legal corporation; formally incorporated as a single entity.
   - Simple: Made into one official body, such as a company, college or town, that the law treats as a single unit.
   - _Under its royal charter, the college became a corporate body able to own land in its own name._
   - _As a body corporate, the association can sign contracts and be sued as a single legal person._
6. United into a single body; held or done collectively by a group acting as one.
   - Simple: Joined into one group, or shared, owned, or done by the group as a whole.
   - _Early monks stressed corporate worship, in which the whole community prayed together at set hours._
   - _In many villages the pasture was in corporate ownership, belonging to the community as a whole rather than to any one family._

## Noun

2. The head office and senior management of a company, seen as the part that makes the big decisions for its branches, stores or franchises. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: The main office and top bosses of a company, who make the big decisions for its stores or branches.
   - _Corporate approved the new hire only after weeks of delay._
   - _Branch staff blamed corporate for the sudden layoffs._
3. A business organized as a corporation; a company or group of that kind, especially a large one.
   - Simple: A company or group of companies run as one business, especially a large one.
   - _Small suppliers often depend on one or two big corporates for most of their orders._
   - _The startup was eventually bought by a multinational corporate._

## Verb

Pronunciation: US say "KOR-puh-rayt" /ˈkɔɹ.pəɹ.eɪt/; UK say "KAW-puh-rayt" /ˈkɔː.pə.ɹeɪt/

7. To unite separate parts into a single body, or to come together and form one; to incorporate. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To join separate parts or people into one group, or to join together to become one.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A bond issued by a corporation to raise capital, as distinct from a government bond.
- (noun) A short film made for use inside a business, such as for staff training, rather than for the general public.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–6** — The adjective is first recorded around 1429 and the noun in 1849. It comes through Middle English corporat(e) from Latin corporātus, the past participle of corporō ("to make into a body"), which is built on corpus ("body"). The noun was later formed from the adjective.
**Meaning 7** — Middle English corporaten, recorded from 1398, meant "to incorporate, assimilate; to constitute as a legal corporation." It was made either by adding the verb-forming suffix -en to corporat(e) or straight from Latin corporātus. The root is the same one behind Etymology 1.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/corporate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).