confrere
noun
a fellow member of a fraternity, profession, etc.; colleague.
confrere
American
[kon-frair]
/ ˈkɒn frɛər /
noun
confrère
British
/ ˈkɒnfrɛə /
noun
Etymology
Origin of confrere
1425–75; late Middle English < Middle French < Medieval Latin confrāter colleague, equivalent to Latin con- con- + frāter brother
Explanation
A confrere is not quite the same as a buddy. It's a fellow worker, a member of your professional group or an esteemed peer. Think of the noun confrere as a very French sounding way to say "colleague." In fact, frere means "brother" in French, so a confrere is like someone who's a part of your professional brotherhood. Except these days that brotherhood has been expanded to include all of the working women of the world.
Vocabulary lists containing confrere
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:
“They have insinuated infamy on the integrity of my priestly life, having financed witnesses in a trial against a confrere, even being the owner of oil wells or tax havens.”
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2022
In the crowd were the actors Tony Danza, Tony Lo Bianco and Jelani Remy; Monty Alexander, a jazz pianist; and Deana Martin, an entertainer and daughter of the Sinatra confrere Dean Martin.
From New York Times ● Sep. 25, 2019
In Owen, Casey has found a willing confrere.
From New York Times ● Mar. 7, 2014
No matter where Dr. William Henry Welch of Johns Hopkins goes he finds friends to greet him with that affectionate regard which able men yield to an able, modest confrere.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I do not propose to attend the service this evening, Niece Ruth," she said, a minute later, when Reuben and his confrere had entered on the cavernous darkness of the winding stairway.
From Aunt Rachel by Murray, David Christie
Like his European confrère Karl Ove Knausgaard, Louis has turned to the novel as a way to process traumatic personal history, finding a sympathetic global audience in the process.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2022
In the middle of the last century, when Cardinal Francis Spellman was archbishop—and a confrère of J. Edgar Hoover, Joseph McCarthy, and Pope Pius XII—the residence was known as the Powerhouse.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 8, 2019
Lanzmann himself – a fighter in the French resistance, a former lover of Simone de Beauvoir and confrère of Jean-Paul Sartre – was agitated.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 10, 2015
Deep into last spring’s campaign to elect Socialist President François Hollande, Valérie Trierweiler could still be seen greeting an old confrère with la bise, a two-cheek kiss, on the edge of a media scrum.
From Newsweek ● Sep. 17, 2012
Redwood was a man of large dimensions, and apparently as strong as a buffalo, while his confrère was a thin, wiry, sinewy mortal, with a tough, weasel-like look and gait.
From The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire by Reid, Mayne
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.
