friend
noun
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
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friend
American
[frend]
/ frɛnd /
noun
-
friends
plural
-
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
-
a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter
friends of the Boston Symphony.
-
a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile.
Who goes there? Friend or foe?
-
a member of the same nation, party, etc.
- Synonyms:
- compatriot, confrere, associate, ally
-
Friend, a member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker.
The religious practices of Friends are founded in direct communion with God.
-
a person associated with another as a contact on a social media website.
We've never met, but we're Facebook friends.
verb (used with object)
-
friends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
friended,
past participle, past
-
friending
present participle
-
Rare. to befriend.
-
to add (a person) to one's list of contacts on a social media website.
I just friended a couple of guys in my class.
idioms
friend
1
British
/ frɛnd /
noun
-
a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate
-
an acquaintance or associate
-
an ally in a fight or cause; supporter
-
a fellow member of a party, society, etc
-
a patron or supporter
a friend of the opera
-
to be friendly (with)
-
to become friendly (with)
verb
Friend
2
British
/ frɛnd /
noun
Friend
3
British
/ frɛnd /
noun
friend
More Idioms
Usage
Spelling tips for friend The word friend is hard to spell for two reasons. First, it sounds like [ frend ], making it easy to miss the i. Second, even if you know there is an i, it can be difficult to remember the order of the i and the e. How to spell friend: To remember that friend has an i in it, think of the phrase "I see my friends on Friday." Both friend and Friday begin fri-. If you remember that friend has an i in it, but just can't remember where it goes, keep in mind the classic mnemonic device "I before E, except after C."
Synonym Usage
See acquaintance.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
friendsimple
-
friendssimple
-
have friendedperfect
-
has friendedperfect
-
am friendingprogressive
-
are friendingprogressive
-
is friendingprogressive
-
have been friendingperfect progressive
-
has been friendingperfect progressive
Past
-
friendedsimple
-
had friendedperfect
-
was friendingprogressive
-
were friendingprogressive
-
had been friendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of friend
First recorded before 900; Middle English friend, frend, Old English frēond “friend, lover, relative” (cognate with Old Saxon friund, Old High German friunt ( German Freund ), Gothic frijōnds ), originally the present participle of frēogan, cognate with Gothic frijōn “to love”
Explanation
A friend is your buddy, your pal, your amigo, your comrade. You know, someone you trust and like enough to hang out with on a regular basis. The noun friend comes to us from the Old English word freond. Back then you had to be careful to not confuse freond with feond, which meant “fiend or enemy.” These days it's pretty tough to get mixed up though. Friends are the people you can count on, the ones that make you laugh and throw you birthday parties. Enemies are generally the mean ones.
Vocabulary lists containing friend
Spelling Practice, Unit 2
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Spelling Practice, Unit 3
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The couple produced the film through their company Nevermind Pictures, which they founded with Meyer’s best friend Maggie McLean, also a producer on the project.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Trump first entered politics when the women were in middle school, says her friend Emily Villalpando, 21.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
"I want to congratulate my good friend Bob Iger and Josh Kushner on their purchase of the Los Angeles Lakers!"
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
When Leontes implores his friend to extend his stay, he demurs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
I looked for my best friend, Charlie Parr, but didn’t see him.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
As Sara emerges as the ever-dwindling group’s heroine, Max goes from being the bossy but loveable Alpha Friend to She Who Must Be Obeyed, even as she makes the worst decisions possible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Matthew Friend, the current CFO, will leave that role but stay with the company through Sept. 4 to help with the transition.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
In Leung's latest film, "Silent Friend" -- his first outing in a fully European production -- a ginkgo tree plays a central role.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
GOLDEN, the viral single from the animated hit K-Pop Demon Hunters, was named Song of the Year, and Sabrina Carpenter won Album of the Year for Man's Best Friend.
From BBC ● May 26, 2026
But thankfully the Last Friend app was one click away.
From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera
Miles Palmer, director of the group of friends, said the original astronomers "used scrap material and their ingenuity and they built the most amazing telescope".
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Sosa set out to buy groceries for the free-meal program he runs five days a week for about 350 mostly elderly people, using donations from friends and relatives in the U.S.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
He was joined by “Aqua Dazzle” owner Rex Danyluk and friends as they designed an immersive, imaginative experience without a haunted house, a maze or jump scares.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
“I went in with some friends on a summer share in Cape Cod. It was what my friends were doing, and that was enough for me,” he writes.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
Then, about five minutes later, Arlo and some of his friends were running around and accidentally bumped the table.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
About four years ago, I casually friended a man on social media.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 4, 2022
“Facebook would always tell me, oh, you should be friends with Steve Badger, but I never friended him because I thought he was so mad at me about our awkward breakup,” Calkins said.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2021
“Facebook was new and sparkly and you friended everyone,” said Ms. Schloss, who graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2021
A 2019 Swalwell campaign video shows the congressman and his family members on screen, and they appear to be the same people in the Facebook photos of the accounts friended to Fang.
From Fox News ● Dec. 9, 2020
Since Tea Cake and Janie had friended with the Bahaman workers in the ’Glades, they, the “Saws,” had been gradually drawn into the American crowd.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
Imagine people friending you six months before an election and they're talking to you.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2025
“We often have free stuff,” Lu said in Mandarin to two men who crossed the border in January, after friending them on WeChat at the vegetable giveaway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2023
The News Feed, which dropped the “News” from its name earlier this year, pioneered a social feed that learns from explicit cues you give it, such as friending someone or following a page.
From The Verge ● Jun. 15, 2022
For months, many of them have been posting comments and photos, friending each other and following fake Trump accounts.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 22, 2022
But all the time I knew perfectly well that the great show of honor and "friending" was not for me alone.
From The Story of My Life Recollections and Reflections by Ellen Terry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
