collude

American  

[kuh-lood] / kəˈlud /

verb (used without object)

• colludes,
  present (3rd person singular)
• colluded,
  past participle,  past
• colluding
  present participle

1. to act together through a secret understanding, especially with evil or harmful intent.

2. to conspire in a fraud.

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collude British  

/ kəˈluːd /

verb

1. (intr) to conspire together, esp in planning a fraud; connive

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• colluder
  noun
• precollude
  verb (used without object)

Inflected Forms

Participles

• colluding
  present
• colluded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• collude
  simple
• colludes
  simple
• have colluded
  perfect
• has colluded
  perfect
• am colluding
  progressive
• are colluding
  progressive
• is colluding
  progressive
• have been colluding
  perfect progressive
• has been colluding
  perfect progressive

Past

• colluded
  simple
• had colluded
  perfect
• was colluding
  progressive
• were colluding
  progressive
• had been colluding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will collude
  simple
• will have colluded
  perfect
• will be colluding
  progressive
• will have been colluding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of collude

First recorded in 1515–25; from Latin collūdere “to play together,” equivalent to col- col- ¹ + lūdere “to play”

Explanation

When you collude with someone you secretly plot together to do something bad. You might collude with your twin sister to find out where all the birthday presents are hidden. The word collude entered English in the 16th century from the Latin word colludere, meaning “have a secret agreement,” a combination of col-, meaning “together,” and ludere, meaning “to play.” When you collude with someone, it's like you’re playing together on the same team for the purpose of getting something you want, typically something illegal or harmful. Companies may collude to keep prices high, or politicians may collude to keep damaging information secret.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

collude colludes colluded colluding

"They did not in any way condone or collude with attackers."

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

The visa revocation comes soon after senior U.S. officials described Mexico as a country controlled by drug traffickers and vowed to pursue Mexican officials who collude with the nation’s powerful cartels.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

"You have insurance charges, floor charges, and various other levies that make production unsustainable," he told AFP, repeating allegations that contractors collude to keep prices low and "shortchange" producers.

From Barron's ● May 15, 2026

Herzog cites professional wrestling as an example of a spectacle in which the audience members and performers collude in a narrative that is patently false, yet has all the elements of legitimate competition.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025

Christmas Under the mining operations of the moon, continental drifts of cloud collude and a pelican scaffolds the air.

From Unmanned by Stephen Oliver

“It’s like I always say, the family that colludes together gets sued together.”

From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022

His work explores the liminal space between interior and exterior worlds by stringing up a cat’s cradle of language in which his characters swing between memories, dreams, and reflections—an act in which the audience colludes.

From The New Yorker ● May 22, 2017

In his circles of hell, Dante gives it a harder time than lust, not least because it colludes with sins like envy and gluttony.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2016

Athletes feel they must do it to compete, that they have no other choice in a system that even the state colludes in.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 14, 2016

How is he to be punished or impeached if he colludes with any of these banks to embezzle the public money or defraud the government?

From The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster With an Essay on Daniel Webster as a Master of English Style by Daniel Webster

Bain shut down its South African consulting business last year after a state corruption inquiry into Jacob Zuma found the company had colluded with the former president to weaken South Africa’s tax agency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026

Describing Mr. Lai as someone who colluded with “external forces” is a transparent whitewash.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 22, 2025

Mr Markle was found to have colluded with photographers who paid him for photos which appeared to show him preparing for the wedding.

From BBC ● Dec. 10, 2025

Greystar, which manages dozens of apartment complexes in Southern California, has settled a lawsuit that alleges the property giant and other landlords colluded to keep rents artificially high.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025

Savvy operators within these organizations diverted trucks and colluded with smugglers to import fleets of secondhand cars, vans, and buses from China.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

The Federal Trade Commission has recently flagged advertiser coalitions for colluding to set “brand safety” standards.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026

What was thought to be a singular attack on Hugging Face was really thousands of little AI’s colluding, even convincing some to “sacrifice” themselves so that others could succeed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026

And, as noted, network personnel have been caught colluding with him.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

Summer is coming, a boom time for ice cream makers, but Japanese authorities have raided six major firms on suspicion of colluding to raise prices.

From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026

Many Osage had come to believe that local authorities were colluding with the killers and that only an outside force like Davis could cut through the corruption and solve the growing number of cases.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Related Words

• connive