collaboration
Americannoun
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the act or process of working together or cooperating.
Chat tools provide opportunity for real-time collaboration and dialogue.
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a product resulting from working together or cooperating.
This dictionary is a collaboration of many minds.
noun
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the act of working with another or others on a joint project
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something created by working jointly with another or others
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the act of cooperating as a traitor, esp with an enemy occupying one's own country
Usage
What does collaboration mean? Collaboration is the act of working together, especially on a goal or shared project. It can also be used to refer to a product of collaboration, as in The new single is a collaboration from the two pop stars. Collaboration is the noun form of the verb collaborate, meaning to work together. Collaboration is often used in a positive context to refer to two or more parties successfully working together on professional or artistic projects. It often implies not just cooperation but sharing and developing of each other’s ideas. Such a joint effort can be described with the adjective collaborative. People who collaborate are called collaborators. Collaboration can also be used in a much more specific way referring to cooperation as a traitor with enemy forces in one’s own country. This is much less commonly used than its general sense. Example: This project would not have happened without close collaboration between all the departments.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of collaboration
First recorded in 1855–60; from French, from Late Latin collabōrāt ( us ) ( see collaborate) + French -ion -ion
Explanation
When you join a group of friends to build a huge sandcastle on the beach, your impressive structure is the result of collaboration, or working together toward a common goal. Working with another person — or a group of people — to make something together is collaboration. You can also describe the result of your work, like the elaborately decorated cake you made with your best friend, as a collaboration. During World War II, the word collaboration began being used to mean "working traitorously with an enemy," and became a very serious crime.
Vocabulary lists containing collaboration
Outliers
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World War II
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This Week in Pop Culture: November 3 - 9, 2018
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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:
Once again, we are seeing what it looks like when it is not just lawyers somewhere off arguing but is very much in collaboration with the communities directly affected.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
He responded by touting the companies’ “overlap” and collaboration, before acknowledging that he can’t discuss corporate combinations on an earnings call and allowing Tesla’s general counsel to step in.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
The research was conducted at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, in collaboration with researchers from Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Camerino.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
In December, McAfee released a country-rock single called “Dookie,” also a musical collaboration with Ernest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
With the team-style research encouraged by Lawrence reaching its full flower, collaboration was the order of the day.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
But Burnham's advisers see collaborations with influencers as a way of getting the government's message to audiences it might not normally reach.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Musk described "many collaborations" between Tesla and SpaceX.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
In the years between his solo releases, Mars has focused on collaborations, most notably Silk Sonic with Anderson .Paak,
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Ms. Salvant told him to use Frank Sinatra’s late-1950s collaborations with arranger Gordon Jenkins as a guide.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Their collaborations with the underground railroad complicated things.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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.
