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
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
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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
Warnock became Georgia’s first Black senator and the first Black Democratic senator from a former confederate state.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 24, 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 “focal” behavior, which both the confederate and an onlooking researcher recorded, was holding the door.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 21, 2021
Bargh wanted to learn whether the people who were primed with the polite words would take longer to interrupt the conversation between the experimenter and the confederate than those primed with the rude words.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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
Fifteen years earlier, civil war had broken out when 11 states seceded and formed the Confederate States of America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 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
Last October, the only outdoor monument in Washington to honor a Confederate general -- a statue of Albert Pike -- was restored.
From Barron's ● May 17, 2026
In January of the new year 1863, the fighting further intensified as Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people in the Confederate states.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
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 provision was mainly used after the Civil War to keep former confederates out of government.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 18, 2023
The newly released affidavit said that federal agents had “not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation.”
From New York Times ● Aug. 26, 2022
The FBI asked for the affidavit to be sealed because the agency has "not yet identified all potential criminal confederates no located all evidence related to its investigation."
From Salon ● 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
The request sought individual aid for affected Okanogan County residents and members of the Colville confederated tribes.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2014
President Barack Obama has approved federal assistance for Okanogan County and the Colville confederated tribes to help repair or replace public infrastructure lost in this summer’s wildfires.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 20, 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
The emperor exercises the imperial power in the name of the confederated states.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 7 "Geoponici" to "Germany" by Various
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
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 Johnson, Allen
Of the charge, "Guilty, except as to combining, confederating, and conspiring with Edward Spangler; of this, not guilty."
From A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 6, part 2: Andrew Johnson by Richardson, James D. (James Daniel)
Other tribes in large numbers were standing in precisely the same relations in different parts of the continent without confederating.
From Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines by Morgan, Lewis H.
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.
