correspondent

American  

[kawr-uh-spon-duhnt, kor-] / ˌkɔr əˈspɒn dənt, ˌkɒr- /

noun

• correspondents
  plural

1. a person who communicates by letters.

2. a person employed by a news agency, periodical, television network, etc., to gather, report, or contribute news, articles, and the like regularly from a distant place.

3. a person who contributes a letter or letters to a newspaper, magazine, etc.

4. a person or firm that has regular business relations with another, especially at a distance.

5. a thing that corresponds to something else.

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adjective

1. consistent, similar, or analogous; corresponding.

correspondent British  

/ ˌkɒrɪˈspɒndənt /

noun

1. a person who communicates by letter or by letters

2. a person employed by a newspaper, etc, to report on a special subject or to send reports from a foreign country

3. a person or firm that has regular business relations with another, esp one in a different part of the country or abroad

4. something that corresponds to another

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adjective

1. similar or analogous

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noncorrespondent
  adjective
• precorrespondent
  adjective
• correspondently
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• correspondents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of correspondent

1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin corrēspondent- (stem of corrēspondēns ), present participle of corrēspondēre to correspond; see -ent

Explanation

A correspondent is a reporter who writes or records stories on one topic or from one region. If you're hired as a radio station's financial correspondent, you'll need to do a lot of research on the economy. A journalist might work as a TV station's Middle East correspondent or a newspaper's education correspondent. You can also call yourself a correspondent if you're a regular letter or email writer, corresponding, or communicating, with someone. As an adjective, though, correspondent means "matching or agreeing." The word is rooted in the Medieval Latin correspondere, "to answer together."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

correspondent correspondents

BBC correspondent Daniel Sandford explains how the incident unfolded and the new information that has been released.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

"I assumed that it would be really loud, that it would cause a global uproar. I mean, it's a foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal," he said - and he was right.

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

Robin Wigglesworth, global finance correspondent for the Financial Times, found that fact, and it sent him looking for a book tracing how bonds built the modern financial system.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

Survivors disembarked a rescue boat at the French port of Calais in the mid-morning, some on stretchers and in wheelchairs, many wrapped in emergency blankets, an AFP correspondent said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

After he was done explaining his role as a war correspondent, I felt content.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers

The cites worst affected Wednesday included Paris, Bordeaux in the southwest and Lyon in the southeast, and the northern city of Lille where police again used tear gas in clashes, AFP correspondents said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

The Moscow Times, a small, independent English-language paper founded in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, had become a training ground for a generation of foreign correspondents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The BBC's correspondents who covered the address have picked five key moments that stood out.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

The program will also feature stories with CBS News correspondents outside of the core group at “60 Minutes,” such as Seth Doane and Matt Gutman.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026

I met real estate developers, agents, heiresses, fund managers, lawyers, clothing designers, professional basketball players, photographers, movie producers, and television correspondents.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

Related Words

• contributor
• journalist
• reporter
• writer