colleague
Americannoun
-
colleagues
plural
noun
Usage
What does colleague mean? A colleague is someone you work with or someone who’s in the same profession as you, especially a peer within that profession. Colleague can be a synonym for coworker, which is someone who has the same employer as you. But it also used to refer to people who have different employers but who work in the same or a very similar profession, especially when they regularly interact or share knowledge. For example, two medical researchers who work for different universities but who collaborate to publish research findings would be called colleagues. Example: Sarah has received an outpouring of support from her fellow attorneys at the firm as well as many of her colleagues in the legal community.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of colleague
First recorded in 1515–25; from Middle French collegue, from Latin collēga, equivalent to col- “with, together” ( see col- 1) + -lēga, derivative of legere “to choose, gather”
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How does colleague compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A colleague is someone you work with at your job. When you are a teacher, the other teachers are your colleagues. When you work as a cashier at 7-11, the guy at the deli counter is your colleague as well. Your colleagues are usually people at the same level or rank as you are. You would not usually consider your boss to be a colleague. This noun is from French collègue, from Latin collega "a person chosen along with another," from the prefix com- "with" plus legare "to appoint as a deputy."
Vocabulary lists containing colleague
Franklin D. Roosevelt, "A Date That Will Live In Infamy" (1941)
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Vocabulary from "There Will Never Be an Age of Artificial Intimacy," by Sherry Turkle
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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:
However, Wood and his quant colleague Desh Peramunetilleke observe a “dissonance” between the accelerating returns and the declining investment.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 13, 2026
Jo Oak, chief executive of Valleys to Coast, previously said the organisation was "devastated by the tragic death of our colleague".
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2026
Roughly 25 years later, fresh evidence emerged when Willmott's colleague Andrés Orellana encountered a group of hungry Colobura caterpillars feeding on a young Cecropia tree in Venezuela.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 12, 2026
Brainard told my colleague Matt Grossman last week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 12, 2026
In November of 1792, for example, when another Quaker petition came forward under the sponsorship of Fisher Ames, William Loughton Smith referred his colleague to the earlier debate of 1790.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
The approach taken by Buckingham and his colleagues to stock selection makes use of various traditional measures of company valuations to sales, earnings, cash flow and other items.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 13, 2026
This was no problem, he responded - one of his colleagues could do it, and also pose as her at gallery openings, to network on her behalf.
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2026
Cook shared the spotlight with colleagues more frequently than Jobs, and delegated some creative decisions to others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2026
Buckingham was the editor of “The Prudent Speculator” newsletter for more than 25 years until he and his colleagues Jason Clark and Christopher Quigley founded Value87 Investment Partners in May.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 13, 2026
But his colleagues told him that William would never agree.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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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.
