confederate
adjective
united in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.
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confederate
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Confederate
Confederateadjectiveof, supporting, or relating to the Confederate States of America
confederate
American
[kuhn-fed-er-it, -fed-rit, kuhn-fed-uh-reyt]
/ kənˈfɛd ər ɪt, -ˈfɛd rɪt, kənˈfɛd əˌreɪt /
adjective
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united in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.
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(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Confederate States of America.
the Confederate army.
noun
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confederates
plural
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a person, group, nation, etc., united with others in a confederacy; an ally.
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an accomplice, especially in a mischievous or criminal act.
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(initial capital letter) a supporter of the Confederate States of America.
verb (used with or without object)
confederated,
confederating
confederate
1
British
noun
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a nation, state, or individual that is part of a confederacy
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someone who is part of a conspiracy; accomplice
adjective
verb
Confederate
2
British
/ -ˈfɛdrɪt, kənˈfɛdərɪt /
adjective
noun
Confederate
Cultural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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half-Confederateadjective
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nonconfederateadjective
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pro-Confederateadjective
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unconfederatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of confederate
1350–1400; Middle English confederat < Late Latin confoederātus (past participle of confoederāre to unite in a league), equivalent to con- con- + foeder- (stem of foedus ) treaty ( see fidelity) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
A confederate is an ally — someone who's on your side. Your brother, the artist, might be your only confederate in your goal of studying modern dance in Paris this summer. A confederate is anyone who supports you and works toward the same goal with you. When it is used in the context of government or politics, it means "united by a treaty," like two countries that have joined forces against a third. When the first letter is capitalized, Confederate refers to the southern United States during the Civil War, which were confederates in their fight to secede from the rest of the country.
Vocabulary lists containing confederate
Smoke and Mirrors: The Lingo of Illusion and Deception
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"Of Plymouth Plantation," Vocabulary from the historical account
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Workshop 4, Part 2
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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:
The younger Mr. Landrieu confronted the nation’s history of racism himself when he spearheaded the removal of four confederate monuments in New Orleans in 2017.
From New York Times ● Nov. 21, 2022
The first march I ever attended was a protest in January 2000, to bring down the confederate flag from the top of the South Carolina State House.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2022
The bombastic Mayor Shinn of Jefferson Mays and overdecorated Mrs. Shinn of Jayne Houdyshell are turned into veritable sight gags; Shuler Hensley’s Marcellus, Hill’s confederate, is made to appear a witless errand boy.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 11, 2022
The “focal” behavior, which both the confederate and an onlooking researcher recorded, was holding the door.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2021
Housemaid, nurse, mother, confederate, counselor, chef—what ten thousand things was Madame Manec to Etienne?
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
As Ms. Newsome removed the Confederate flag and carried it down the pole, she recited Psalm 27 and the Lord’s Prayer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
On a drizzly morning in June, all was still on Tuskegee's South Main Street, a two-lane road that runs into the heart of the town square, where a towering Confederate monument loomed over the emptiness.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Gallrein is close to Louisville in a county that features multiple distilleries and a history of Confederate guerrilla violence during the Civil War.
From Slate ● May 19, 2026
At the rally in Montgomery, chants of “we won’t go back” echoed through crowds gathered near the Alabama Capitol, where both Confederate and civil rights monuments stand within view of one another.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
Despite its tragic history, in November 1863, Confederate navy lieutenant George Dixon agreed to take command of the vessel and to raise a seven-man volunteer crew.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
A perennial target of assassins, James survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes and confederates hoped to blow up Parliament.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
The feds identified seven NBA games in 2023 and 2024, including the 2023 game in which Rozier allegedly tipped confederates to his decision to bench himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2025
Indeed, Magliocca testified it was understood the goal of the provision was to keep a wide range of former confederates out of public office in the years after the war.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 3, 2023
The affidavit, which was sworn to on Aug. 5, also noted that the F.B.I. had “not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 26, 2022
And loyal confederates, Hamlet and I never revealed that we were authors of this tragicomedy.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
Gorbachev, who struggled to form even a loosely confederated union out of the fifteen Soviet republics, blamed Yeltsin and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus for plotting illegally to dissolve the bloc.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 3, 2016
After all, it is the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union, or the PYD, which wants autonomy for the Kurds within a future confederated Syria.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 5, 2015
The request sought individual aid for affected Okanogan County residents and members of the Colville confederated tribes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2014
It was issued the year before the Constitutional Convention that would send the confederated former colonies into the epic called the United States of America.
From Forbes ● Aug. 18, 2014
Horotkyevich and Yakub Kmita, who were there at the head of squadrons confederated against the hetman, were good soldiers, but not important; hence the whole confederacy had no weight.
From The Deluge, Vol. I. (of 2) An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia. by Henryk Sienkiewicz
A combine "conspiring, combining, confederating, agreeing and cooperating between or among themselves."
From Time Magazine Archive
In Washington, Bosnian Croats and Muslims signed the constitution of a new federated state, confederating it with Croatia.
From Time Magazine Archive
He entertained a plan of confederating the colonies together, and aspired to become himself the viceroy of the contemplated union.
From History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia by Charles Campbell
He would rather take his chances of defeating the King's troops, confederating with other colonies, and securing the aid of one or more of England's enemy nations.
From Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 by Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker
On November 27, he issued a proclamation, stating that sundry persons were confederating and conspiring together to begin a military expedition or enterprise against the dominions of Spain.
From Union and Democracy by Allen Johnson
Definitions 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.
