collaborate
Americanverb (used without object)
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collaborates,
present (3rd person singular)
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collaborated,
past participle, past
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collaborating
present participle
verb
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to work with another or others on a joint project
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to cooperate as a traitor, esp with an enemy occupying one's own country
Usage
What does collaborate mean? Collaborate means to work together, especially on a goal or shared project. Collaborate is often used in a positive context to refer to two or more parties successfully working together on professional or artistic projects. It often implies more than just cooperation. When two or more people collaborate, they often share and develop each other’s ideas. The act of collaborating is called collaboration. Such a joint effort can be described with the adjective collaborative. People who collaborate are called collaborators. Collaborate can also be used in a much more specific way meaning to cooperate as a traitor with enemy forces in one’s own country. This is much less commonly used than its general sense. Example: The two musicians, who usually have very different styles, collaborated on the groundbreaking new album.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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collaboratesimple
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collaboratessimple
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have collaboratedperfect
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has collaboratedperfect
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am collaboratingprogressive
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are collaboratingprogressive
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is collaboratingprogressive
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have been collaboratingperfect progressive
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has been collaboratingperfect progressive
Past
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collaboratedsimple
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had collaboratedperfect
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was collaboratingprogressive
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were collaboratingprogressive
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had been collaboratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of collaborate
First recorded in 1870–75; from Late Latin collabōrātus (past participle of collabōrāre), equivalent to col- col- 1 + labor “work” + -ātus -ate 1
Compare meaning
How does collaborate compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
When you work together on shared goal, you collaborate. If you don't just split a project up evenly but work together on creating solutions, you collaborate. Inside the word you see co-labor, or "working together." Cooperation is simply splitting up the work and getting it done. Collaboration is when you brainstorm, create, and share possible solutions. During World War II, however, Nazi collaborators were sharing ideas with the wrong side. In today's pop music scene, collaboration means featuring a guest star on a record, and it's often a surefire way to boost sales.
Vocabulary lists containing collaborate
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The Diary of Anne Frank
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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 BofA analysts suggested Walmart has more in place to collaborate with other media companies rather than compete with them outright.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
In its report into that incident, external, it noted "rare cases in which agents without multi-agent tools found ways to collaborate via side channels during training".
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Engineers use it to collaborate on machine-learning projects, from model development to applications.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
They can build audiences online, collaborate with fashion houses, publish books, appear on television, travel the world and use their restaurants as platforms for conversations about culture and identity.
From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2026
According to Shawna Vogel: "Geologists and geophysicists rarely go to the same meetings or collaborate on the same problems."
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Ostrovskiy left Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and sold his company, which now collaborates with the government.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
On his new country album, Starr collaborates with the likes of Sheryl Crow, Billy Strings and St Vincent.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
Project Glasswing collaborates with cybersecurity firms like CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks to adapt Mythos for defense.
From Barron's ● Apr. 10, 2026
It is also a founding member of the VPN Trust Initiative and collaborates with cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt to refine breach response protocols and educate users on data safety.
From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2026
In this remarkable book, which appeared in 1845–46, Lewes the novelist and the journalist collaborates with Lewes the philosopher and man of science.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 14 — Philosophy and Economics by Sir John Alexander Hammerton
The homeowners collaborated with the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy on a painstaking, down-to-the-studs restoration and modernization of the space.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
Since the 2000s, they have collaborated on major investigations of price-fixing in the auto parts and air cargo industries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Parton once estimated that she composed or collaborated on more than 3000 tunes in her lifetime, recording some 450 of them.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
Whitmore, who previously collaborated with the museum during First Fridays in 2025, founded Oso Sound Healing Studio in 2023.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
She and Koch collaborated on several screenplays, and she was finally given screen credit for her work in 1941.
From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow
Ever since then, he’s cemented himself as a mainstay in techno and house music, frequently collaborating with fellow artists such as Sammy Virji, Skrillex and Fisher.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
As it chases commercial approval, Dognosis -- backed by venture-capital firms including Accel India -- is collaborating with government medical institutions for its research.
From Barron's ● Sep. 7, 2026
“Our crew delivered strong results by collaborating on trend-right product stories at amazing value in stores that are fun and easy to shop,” Chief Executive Winnie Park said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and collaborating institutions across North America have now identified environmental conditions that can help cancer cells build this protective layer.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
There was no doubt that Daliwonga was collaborating with the government.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
