collie

American  

[kol-ee] / ˈkɒl i /

noun

collies plural

1. one of a breed of dogs having a usually long, black, tan, and white or sable and white coat, raised originally in Scotland for herding sheep.

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collie British  

/ ˈkɒlɪ /

noun

1. any of several silky-coated breeds of dog developed for herding sheep and cattle See Border collie rough collie bearded collie

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• collielike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• collies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of collie

1645–55; perhaps Scots colle coal (in reference to the original coloration of the breed) + -ie; compare Middle English Colle dog's name

Compare meaning

How does collie compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Shetland sheepdog vs. collie

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

collie collies

Roper, who lives with his wife, Janny, 44, and their border collie Rosie, four, said: "I've never won anything before in my life. I suppose I've just been saving it all up for this."

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

Florsheim has two dogs: Leo, a two-year-old German shepherd he calls “a bit of a handful,” and Rosie, a six-year-old border collie mix.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Runner-Up: I also let Instagram totally inundate me with border collie videos.

From Slate ● Dec. 28, 2024

She jumped out of bed in her nightgown, chased after her 10-year-old border collie, Henry Valentine, and ran to her car in a pair of sandals.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2024

The rule was first come, first served, and there had been another call on the border collie.

From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen

The most remarkable of the test cases seen in this very entertaining program are Australian shepherds and border collies, which are known for their intelligence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026

So far, almost all the agility championships have gone to border collies, and nearly all the obedience titles to Labs.

From Washington Times ● May 5, 2023

A: One day the owner of the country club told me he’d been reading about a golf course in the Midwest that had used border collies to get rid of geese effectively.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 16, 2023

The scientists used computational tools to map out the genetic trajectories by which ancient dogs became, for instance, generic herding dogs and then distinct breeds, like Border collies.

From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2022

In the early 1960s, during what my mother referred to as "the tail end of the Lassie years," my parents were given two collies, which they named Rastus and Duchess.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris