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• fellow
  fellow

  noun

  a man or boy.
• Fellow
  Fellow

  noun

  a member of any of various learned societies

fellow

American  

[fel-oh] / ˈfɛl oʊ /

noun

• fellows
  plural

1. a man or boy.

   a fine old fellow; a nice little fellow.

2. Informal. beau; suitor.

   Mary had her fellow over to meet her folks.

3. Informal. person; one.

   They don't treat a fellow very well here.

4. a person of small worth or no esteem.

5. a companion; comrade; associate.

   They have been fellows since childhood.

6. a person belonging to the same rank or class; equal; peer.

   The doctor conferred with his fellows.

7. one of a pair; mate; match.

   a shoe without its fellow.

8. Education.

   1. a graduate student of a university or college to whom an allowance is granted for special study.

   2. British. an incorporated member of a college, entitled to certain privileges.

   3. a member of the corporation or board of trustees of certain universities or colleges.

9. a member of any of certain learned societies.

   a fellow of the British Academy.

10. Obsolete. a partner.

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verb (used with object)

1. to make or represent as equal with another.

2. Archaic. to produce a fellow to; match.

adjective

1. belonging to the same class or group; united by the same occupation, interests, etc.; being in the same condition.

   fellow students; fellow sufferers.

fellow ¹ British  

/ ˈfɛləʊ /

noun

1. a man or boy

2. an informal word for boyfriend

3. informal one or oneself

   a fellow has to eat

4. a person considered to be of little importance or worth

5. 1. (often plural) a companion; comrade; associate

   2. ( as modifier )

      fellow travellers

6. (at Oxford and Cambridge universities) a member of the governing body of a college, who is usually a member of the teaching staff

7. a member of the governing body or established teaching staff at any of various universities or colleges

8. a postgraduate student employed, esp for a fixed period, to undertake research and, often, to do some teaching

9. 1. a person in the same group, class, or condition

      the surgeon asked his fellows

   2. ( as modifier )

      fellow students

      a fellow sufferer

10. one of a pair; counterpart; mate

    looking for the glove's fellow

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Fellow ² British  

/ ˈfɛləʊ /

noun

1. a member of any of various learned societies

   Fellow of the British Academy

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fellow Idioms  

1. see regular guy (fellow); strange bedfellows.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• fellows
  plural

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fellow Fellow fellows

“This shows there are effective channels that exist far outside of the usual suspects,” said Pavlo Shkurenko, a sanctions research fellow at the Kyiv School of Economics Institute.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

“I feel bad for Tiger,” fellow golf great Jack Nicklaus told the Palm Beach Post in April.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026

This warning, one of several recent reality checks on AI, comes from a venture capitalist, investor and research fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

Morocco has a long-standing claim over Ceuta and its fellow autonomous city of Melilla.

From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026

A fellow who’d been to St. Louis would never be the same again!

From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney

Fellow author Debra Roberts said it was important for policymakers "to realise the rules of the game are now changing".

From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026

"We are now firmly in the quantum advantage era," said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026

Fellow soldiers on the ward applauded the news.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

Fellow singer Brandon Flowers' pivot from the glamorous indie rock 'n' roll of The Killers to Parton's own brand of country music saw him land behind Heaton at number three, with his new album Thrasher.

From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026

“By the time his family got him out he had lung consumption. Fellow was a wreck. Never came back to his studies.”

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

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

The Salvadoran breakfast blended the two, a stage outside the U.S. spotlight, with Suozzi navigating the overlap awkwardly as he and his fellows sang The Fellowship’s praises, without naming it or divulging many details.

From Salon ● May 29, 2026

We’ve committed to adding a billion dollars to the economy by 2030 through our fellows and entrepreneurs.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026

The first night some of our fellows go out three times to look for him.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

Related Words

• boy
• chap
• dude
• guy
• lad
• man