classmate
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of classmate
Explanation
Your classmate is someone who goes to school with you. It's hard to believe when you first start college that some of your classmates will become your very best friends. Your school friends are your classmates, and so are the fellow students you barely know at all. In a small class, you get to know most of your classmates fairly well, while in a large lecture even your teacher might not know all your classmates' names. The word dates from the 18th century, a combination of class, from the Latin classis, "class or division," and mate, "fellow or comrade."
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.
In return, Juin offered his classmate the option of converting parts of the loan into shares of the lingerie business.
From MarketWatch • May 29, 2026
Marcinko was an unlikely international model, says a primary school classmate who we are calling "Jozef".
From BBC • May 19, 2026
He and his classmate Henry Ward Beecher earned money with phrenological demonstrations in Amherst and its neighboring towns.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 29, 2026
And they learned that Yasser Lopez, a classmate, had been stopped in a car with three friends on the way to a soccer game and taken into custody.
From Slate • Apr. 27, 2026
Kind of like her classmate Heather’s hair when it rained.
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
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.
