colleague

[kol-eeg]

noun

1. an associate.

colleague

/ ˈkɒliːɡ /

noun

1. a fellow worker or member of a staff, department, profession, etc

Other Word Forms

• colleagueship noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of colleague¹

First recorded in 1515–25; from Middle French collegue, from Latin collēga, equivalent to col- “with, together” ( col- ¹ ) + -lēga, derivative of legere “to choose, gather”

Word History and Origins

Origin of colleague¹

C16: from French collègue, from Latin collēga one selected at the same time as another, from com- together + lēgāre to choose

Example Sentences

While that certainly made sense during the crisis, it came at the expense of tasks that require collaboration, such as group projects, helping colleagues and mentoring new hires.

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She said she worked the phones to make sure the municipality kept up with the tight timeline, pressing her colleagues to have documents ready as soon as they could.

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“They definitely don’t talk to a supervisor if something is going wrong,” Popple says, since they are worried about being compared with better-performing colleagues.

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“The Office of the Governor repeatedly demanded advance notice of litigation strategy and of next steps in the litigation,” the deputy, Melanie Proctor, wrote to her colleagues.

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"Our thoughts go out to the Blue Islands staff and employees, our colleagues that are impacted - it's been a huge service for them to serve Jersey and it's very sad news," he said.

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Related Words

• aide 
• ally 
• assistant 
• buddy 
• co-worker 
• companion 
• comrade 
• friend 
• partner 
• teammate 

When To Use

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.