compatriot
Americannoun
-
compatriots
plural
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of compatriot
From the Late Latin word compatriōta, dating back to 1605–15. See com-, patriot
Explanation
A compatriot is a person from the same country as you. Don't confuse it with patriot, which means someone with notable love for his country. The word compatriot is often used to suggest an automatic sense of friendship. All compatriots are assumed to be chummy with each other — though, in fact, there's nothing in the dictionary definition to suggest this. Compatriots may — and often do — loathe each other, as countless civil wars have demonstrated.
Vocabulary lists containing compatriot
Not Your Father's Word List: Pater, Patr
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Outliers
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Fidel Castro (1926-2016) Memorial List
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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 31-year-old will face compatriot James Wade in the last four after he knocked out third seed Gian van Veen with a 3-0 win.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
China's world number 85 Wang Xiyu fought back to stun the top seed 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, and will play compatriot Zhang Shuai for the title.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Shelton faces 11th seed Frances Tiafoe, who wrapped up his quarter-final about 19:00 on Tuesday after beating US compatriot Alex Michelsen in a five-set epic.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Francis Ford Coppola decamped there to write his script for “The Godfather,” and it’s where his compatriot George Lucas conjured up the “Star Wars” universe.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
He looked a great deal as his compatriot must have looked when he saw the promised land.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
At those events, Kerr is directly representing his country - there are national medal tables in which the triumphs achieved by compatriots are tallied up together.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Robert Ladd as to the gang ties of Davis and his compatriots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Spending her Saturday not in uniform but in a T-shirt and jeans, she would like to enjoy a coffee outside -- and resents that her more religious compatriots think otherwise.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
But Romero said he, like many of his compatriots, is in the dark over the objectives of the negotiations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Perhaps just as important, Stalin and his compatriots found the prospect of “shattering” and “retraining” genes via shock therapy satisfying ideologically.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
