委员会(wěi yuán huì) - committee, commission, board in Mandarin

委员会 (wěi yuán huì) is a committee, commission or board: a standing body of people entrusted with a job. It reads as formal in every register, so it belongs to institutions rather than to a group of friends organising something.

The three parts decompose neatly. 委 is to entrust, 员 marks a person holding a role (as in 服务员, 演员, 运动员), and 会 is a body that meets. Strip the last character and you get 委员, a single committee member.

Two useful collocations: 成立委员会 to set up a committee, and 委员会主席 its chair. The tone run is third, second, fourth, and the third tone on 委 stays low rather than turning into a full rising tone, since the syllable after it is second tone, not third.