fellow
noun
a man or boy.
fellow
American
[fel-oh]
/ ˈfɛl oʊ /
noun
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fellows
plural
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a man or boy.
a fine old fellow; a nice little fellow.
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Informal. beau; suitor.
Mary had her fellow over to meet her folks.
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Informal. person; one.
They don't treat a fellow very well here.
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a person of small worth or no esteem.
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a companion; comrade; associate.
They have been fellows since childhood.
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a person belonging to the same rank or class; equal; peer.
The doctor conferred with his fellows.
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one of a pair; mate; match.
a shoe without its fellow.
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Education.
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a graduate student of a university or college to whom an allowance is granted for special study.
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British. an incorporated member of a college, entitled to certain privileges.
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a member of the corporation or board of trustees of certain universities or colleges.
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a member of any of certain learned societies.
a fellow of the British Academy.
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Obsolete. a partner.
verb (used with object)
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to make or represent as equal with another.
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Archaic. to produce a fellow to; match.
adjective
fellow
1
British
/ ˈfɛləʊ /
noun
-
a man or boy
-
an informal word for boyfriend
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informal one or oneself
a fellow has to eat
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a person considered to be of little importance or worth
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(often plural) a companion; comrade; associate
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( as modifier )
fellow travellers
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(at Oxford and Cambridge universities) a member of the governing body of a college, who is usually a member of the teaching staff
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a member of the governing body or established teaching staff at any of various universities or colleges
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a postgraduate student employed, esp for a fixed period, to undertake research and, often, to do some teaching
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a person in the same group, class, or condition
the surgeon asked his fellows
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( as modifier )
fellow students
a fellow sufferer
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one of a pair; counterpart; mate
looking for the glove's fellow
Fellow
2
British
/ ˈfɛləʊ /
noun
fellow
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fellow
before 1050; Middle English felowe, felawe, late Old English fēolaga < Old Norse fēlagi partner in a joint undertaking, equivalent to fē money, property (cognate with Old English feoh, German Vieh ) + -lagi bedfellow, comrade; akin to lair 1, lie 2
Explanation
Fellow is an old fashioned word for “guy.” If you’re wearing a top hat, you may address someone as “my good fellow.” It’s also a non-stuffy word to describe people in the same situation, such as you and your fellow Vocabulary.com fans. Other words for fellow include "chap" and "dude." A fellow can also be someone’s boyfriend, as in “Is he your fellow?” an interested suitor might ask. Another kind of fellow is an academic who's either reached a high position or won a prestigious scholarship. A MacArthur Fellow, for example, is a person who won a MacArthur fellowship (a well-deserved hunk of money). Fellow comes from an Old English word, feolaga, "one who shares with another."
Vocabulary lists containing fellow
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:
That’s why his five fellow umpires made a point of patting him on the back or shoulder before jogging to their positions for the first pitch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
His fellow traitors clearly wanted to be supportive, but things were getting dicey.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
Mr. Watkins is a research fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center and the editor of Bisonomics, a new publication.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Robin Brooks, for example, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, discussed the potential for a spike in the real against the dollar in a posting on X Wednesday.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
The sputtering stopped abruptly as the other fellow shook him off.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Fellow lead vocalist Scott wrote: "The strongest duo right there! Love y'all so much! You've got this!"
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
"The surprising question is: how can something so small energetically impact something so enormous?" said Roy, assistant professor at RRI and former ASU Exploration Prize Postdoctoral Fellow.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Fellow stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon issued a statement at the time, praising the women for coming forward and made it clear that they supported them.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
Adler chose to forgo college and become a Thiel Fellow, a grant program funded by the billionaire investor that encourages young people to build startups.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Fellow immigrants from your homeland are more than willing to pay it forward and pitch in to make sure the INS doesn't detain you.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
Warrior-Scholar Project fellows teach a college readiness curriculum to help inspire confidence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Drexl, two PhD research fellows and a postdoc studied 28 people in Germany who reported hearing an unexplained hum or buzz.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026
Messrs. Duesterberg and Rough are senior fellows at the Hudson Institute.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
He is an internationally recognized expert in heart-rhythm disorders, has helped develop innovative therapies for cardiac arrhythmias, and has authored over 450 scientific publications and trained hundreds of cardiology fellows.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
He enlivened an hour, and then departed to mess with our fellows.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
