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• confederate
  confederate

  adjective

  united in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.
• Confederate
  Confederate

  adjective

  of, supporting, or relating to the Confederate States of America

confederate

American  

[kuhn-fed-er-it, -fed-rit, kuhn-fed-uh-rayt] / kənˈfɛd ər ɪt, -ˈfɛd rɪt, kənˈfɛd əˌreɪt /

adjective

1. united in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.

2. (initial capital letter) of or relating to the Confederate States of America.

   the Confederate army.

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noun

• confederates
  plural

1. a person, group, nation, etc., united with others in a confederacy; an ally.

   Synonyms:

   cohort, partner, associate

2. an accomplice, especially in a mischievous or criminal act.

3. (initial capital letter) a supporter of the Confederate States of America.

verb (used with or without object)

confederated, confederating

1. to unite in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.

confederate ¹ British  

noun

1. a nation, state, or individual that is part of a confederacy

2. someone who is part of a conspiracy; accomplice

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adjective

1. united in a confederacy; allied

verb

1. to form into or become part of a confederacy

Confederate ² British  

/ kənˈfɛdərɪt, -ˈfɛdrɪt /

adjective

1. of, supporting, or relating to the Confederate States of America

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noun

1. a supporter of the Confederate States of America

Confederate Cultural  

1. A descriptive term for the institutions and people of the Confederacy.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• half-Confederate
  adjective
• nonconfederate
  adjective
• pro-Confederate
  adjective
• unconfederated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• confederates
  plural

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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

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

confederate Confederate confederates confederated confederating

Symantec uncovers a malicious agent that can flip a legitimate AI system into ‘a devoted companion that must never refuse’—and a cybercrime confederate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

Grace Soens, who plays June, Marisol’s confederate at work, and Jack Sharpe, who takes on the role of Lenny, June’s mentally disturbed brother, expand this unstable world, where it’s hard to know who to trust.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

“Over two years ago, Richmond was home to more confederate statues than any city in the United States,” Mayor Stoney said in a statement on Twitter after the statue was gone.

From New York Times ● Dec. 12, 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

Divide into groups and read Eli Landers letters from different years comparing changes in attitude for a confederate soldier over time from the beginning of the war to the end of the war.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

I was there when the Confederate flag finally came down off the capitol, a seminal moment in the arc of a changing state.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

Juxtaposing Jim Crow-era Confederate monuments and recent art, “Monuments” challenges white supremacy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 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

Sentiment: Expresses the living conditions of Confederate soldiers and the public, as the war was lost.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

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

It was mainly used to prevent former confederates from taking over state and federal government positions after the Civil War.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 8, 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

And loyal confederates, Hamlet and I never revealed that we were authors of this tragicomedy.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

Wayne commanded Army forces during the Northwest Indian War, a confrontation on the American frontier that ended with the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a key victory over confederated Native forces that allied with the British.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2023

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

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

He showed clearly that wit, confederated with truth, had such fire as authority was not able to resist.

From Ireland in the Days of Dean Swift Irish Tracts, 1720 to 1734 by J. Bowles (John Bowles) Daly

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

In the case of Lewis Payne, the commission, having maturely considered the evidence adduced, finds the accused as follows: Of the specification, "Guilty, except 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 James D. (James Daniel) Richardson

No: it is between him and them combining and confederating, on one side, and the public revenues, and the miserable inhabitants of a ruined country, on the other.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 03 (of 12) by Edmund Burke

The work of confederating the British American Provinces was one of compromise among the statesmen, the political parties and the people concerned.

From The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volumes 1 to 4 by John Charles Dent

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