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:
But when she proudly showed her discovery to a colleague, the reaction was not quite what she expected.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
The leading contributor, as my colleague Queenie Wong has reported, is Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who claims to have moved out of the state, which might enable him to avoid the tax.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Stocks fell, but trader Art Cashin, then a rookie, was correctly advised to buy stocks by an older colleague.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
The balance of the LP was recorded at North London’s Pathway studio with Clover, a California-based country rock band, and produced by Nick Lowe, Costello’s fellow Stiff Records colleague.
From Salon ● Oct. 14, 2026
“I do hate to disagree with my goblin colleague, but that’s called cloudflower. And it’s deathly poisonous.”
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
While colleagues at the commodity trader mainly move physical tankers of crude and fuel or trade electricity and natural gas, Liu’s team wagers on financial contracts tied to underlying energy markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
I am grateful for all the support and good wishes from former colleagues, friends and strangers, which have helped me and my family during this difficult time.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
One of her colleagues has "36 or 37 students" in an advanced maths class, she said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Other unions have been decidedly cool to the measure, leading to a nasty outbreak of finger-pointing within the state’s organized labor ranks, as my colleagues Seema Mehta, Nicole Nixon and Taryn Luna reported.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Her colleagues were of no help, until, on my way out, I came across a newsboy entering the building.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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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.
