cohort

American  

[koh-hawrt] / ˈkoʊ hɔrt /

noun

cohorts plural

1. a group or company.

   She has a cohort of admirers.

2. a companion or associate.

   Synonyms:

   buddy, pal, chum, fellow, comrade, friend

3. one of the ten divisions in an ancient Roman legion, numbering from 300 to 600 soldiers.

4. any group of soldiers or warriors.

5. an accomplice; abettor.

   He got off with probation, but his cohorts got ten years apiece.

6. a group of persons sharing a particular statistical or demographic characteristic.

   the cohort of all children born in 1980.

7. Biology. an individual in a population of the same species.

---

cohort British  

/ ˈkəʊhɔːt /

noun

1. one of the ten units of between 300 and 600 men in an ancient Roman Legion

2. any band of warriors or associates

   the cohorts of Satan

3. an associate or follower

4. biology a taxonomic group that is a subdivision of a subclass (usually of mammals) or subfamily (of plants)

5. statistics a group of people with a statistic in common, esp having been born in the same year

---

Usage

What does cohort mean? A cohort is a group of people, as in The senator is traveling with a large cohort. It can also refer to an associate or companion, as in I’m meeting up with some of my cohorts from my days as a salesperson. Sometimes, cohort refers to an accomplice in crime or some other underhanded activity, as in The supervillain and his cohorts have robbed yet another bank. When referring to a group, cohort can also be used in a more specific way to mean a group of people who share a common characteristic, come from the same demographic, or have been sorted into the same category. In statistical studies, it’s especially used to refer to people born in the same year or range of years, as in This study focuses on the cohort of people born between 1980 and 1985. In education, cohort is used to refer to a group of students, such as one consisting of students who started in the same year, or one of the multiple smaller groups that a class has been divided into. In biology, cohort is used to refer to an individual animal or organism in a population of the same species.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• cohorts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of cohort

First recorded in 1475–85; from Middle French cohorte, from Latin cohort- (stem of cohors ) “farmyard, armed force (originally, from a particular place or camp), cohort, retinue,” equivalent to co- “with, together” + hort- (akin to hortus “garden”); replacing late Middle English cohors, from Latin; see co-, com-

Explanation

A cohort is a group of people who are around the same age, like a cohort of college students who have similar experiences and concerns. The word cohort was originally used to describe a military unit in ancient Rome. You can see how this retains traces of the word’s origins: cohorts are bound together by similar circumstances just like a group of soldiers in a military unit. Some language purists insist that the word only describe a group, such as a cohort of accountants, but it can also refer to companions or supporters, such as “Susie and her cohorts.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cohort cohorts

It then took more than 70 years to become an “aged society,” in which the size of that cohort has doubled to 14%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

Major carriers’ new plans “are a bid to win that cohort back,” said Maral.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

That plan said students applying in fall 2028 would be the earliest cohort that could be required to submit test scores.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

Now, he's gaining a whole new cohort of fans.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

“Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Sabrina. I am so honored to kick off another cohort of mentors and mentees,” she says.

From "Piecing Me Together" by Renée Watson

There’s little airtight data on the fathering brain; cohorts are small; some results await replication while others confound analysis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Johnson also checks in with all her cohorts every three months after they complete the program to offer additional guidance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026

The stock is down nearly 10% this year, making it the weakest of all its Magnificent Seven cohorts, and remains nearly 20% south of the high it reached in early January.

From Barron's ● Jun. 3, 2026

The size of the savings divide between the generational cohorts depends heavily on how old the children are, with the widest gap existing among teenagers.

From MarketWatch ● May 29, 2026

“So the divisions,” he asked, “the cohorts, whatever— you’re divided according to who your godly parent is?”

From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• companion
• comrade
• disciple
• follower