friend
noun
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
friend
American
[frend]
/ frɛnd /
noun
-
friends
plural
-
a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
-
a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter
friends of the Boston Symphony.
-
a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile.
Who goes there? Friend or foe?
-
a member of the same nation, party, etc.
- Synonyms:
- compatriot, confrere, associate, ally
-
Friend, a member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker.
The religious practices of Friends are founded in direct communion with God.
-
a person associated with another as a contact on a social media website.
We've never met, but we're Facebook friends.
verb (used with object)
-
friends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
friended,
past participle, past
-
friending
present participle
-
Rare. to befriend.
-
to add (a person) to one's list of contacts on a social media website.
I just friended a couple of guys in my class.
idioms
friend
1
British
/ frɛnd /
noun
-
a person known well to another and regarded with liking, affection, and loyalty; an intimate
-
an acquaintance or associate
-
an ally in a fight or cause; supporter
-
a fellow member of a party, society, etc
-
a patron or supporter
a friend of the opera
-
to be friendly (with)
-
to become friendly (with)
verb
Friend
2
British
/ frɛnd /
noun
Friend
3
British
/ frɛnd /
noun
friend
More Idioms
Usage
Spelling tips for friend The word friend is hard to spell for two reasons. First, it sounds like [ frend ], making it easy to miss the i. Second, even if you know there is an i, it can be difficult to remember the order of the i and the e. How to spell friend: To remember that friend has an i in it, think of the phrase "I see my friends on Friday." Both friend and Friday begin fri-. If you remember that friend has an i in it, but just can't remember where it goes, keep in mind the classic mnemonic device "I before E, except after C."
Synonym Usage
See acquaintance.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
friendsimple
-
friendssimple
-
have friendedperfect
-
has friendedperfect
-
am friendingprogressive
-
are friendingprogressive
-
is friendingprogressive
-
have been friendingperfect progressive
-
has been friendingperfect progressive
Past
-
friendedsimple
-
had friendedperfect
-
was friendingprogressive
-
were friendingprogressive
-
had been friendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of friend
First recorded before 900; Middle English friend, frend, Old English frēond “friend, lover, relative” (cognate with Old Saxon friund, Old High German friunt ( German Freund ), Gothic frijōnds ), originally the present participle of frēogan, cognate with Gothic frijōn “to love”
Explanation
A friend is your buddy, your pal, your amigo, your comrade. You know, someone you trust and like enough to hang out with on a regular basis. The noun friend comes to us from the Old English word freond. Back then you had to be careful to not confuse freond with feond, which meant “fiend or enemy.” These days it's pretty tough to get mixed up though. Friends are the people you can count on, the ones that make you laugh and throw you birthday parties. Enemies are generally the mean ones.
Vocabulary lists containing friend
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Spelling Practice 1, Unit 4
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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:
He wasn’t working per se, just helping out Keket, a friend.
From Slate ● Oct. 26, 2026
"Right now, our friend and colleague is in hospital, grievously injured. The shape of her life and her family's lives changed forever," he said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026
He was McCartney's friend and one of the witnesses telling his story on television for the first time.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
A Ukrainian friend tells him: “Freedom is our religion.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
‘Who knows? But maybe -it was another kind of test? Not whether you could find the third piece of the Nanuak. But whether you could risk it for a friend.’
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
But his role as Friend of Marco 2 proved to be consequential.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
“Our greatest impact is by investing in today’s students experiencing homelessness,” said Jennifer Friend, CEO of Project Hope Alliance, one of Scholarship Prep’s community partners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
That July, a shipment that included Human Rights, the Emancipator, and a children’s magazine called the Slave’s Friend arrived in Charleston, South Carolina.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026
If spotting a rare creature in the wild wasn't challenging enough, the numbat is a squirrel-sized camouflage connoisseur, explains Dr Tony Friend, the godfather of conservation in the state of Western Australia.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Tish, Best Friend Number Two, is also in the scene and, doing Julie’s bidding, urges Chet to get the cake.
From "It All Comes Down to This" by Karen English
He described the Fable as a “magical” place where he’s found numerous friends and opportunities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
To keep this in check, Palmini now avoids recording right after hanging out with friends from the Bronx.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
"We're worried they hate us," a Maine retiree sitting with friends told AFP in Fort Kent, as she nodded towards Canada, visible across the Saint John River.
From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026
You didn’t keep up, but you did quietly judge your friends.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 25, 2026
But my rez friends were the kids I went to school with and maybe a few of their cousins who liked Star Wars or comics.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Just before Christmas 2022, someone purporting to be a San Diego woman named Viktoria Zara friended Kevin on Facebook.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2025
About four years ago, I casually friended a man on social media.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 4, 2022
“Facebook would always tell me, oh, you should be friends with Steve Badger, but I never friended him because I thought he was so mad at me about our awkward breakup,” Calkins said.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2021
“Facebook was new and sparkly and you friended everyone,” said Ms. Schloss, who graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2021
“I’ve seen it. You friended me. And JP’s got one too.”
From "Winger" by Andrew Smith
Imagine people friending you six months before an election and they're talking to you.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2025
“We often have free stuff,” Lu said in Mandarin to two men who crossed the border in January, after friending them on WeChat at the vegetable giveaway.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2023
For months, many of them have been posting comments and photos, friending each other and following fake Trump accounts.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 22, 2022
Why the Cool Kids Are Playing Dungeons & Dragons Annalee Newitz traded Facebook for D&D: What drove me away from Facebook wasn’t just the fake friending.
From The Verge ● Apr. 9, 2019
There was very sharp work between Stanley and John Russell, who left off noble friending and took to noble lording him, to show that they were quite two.
From The Greville Memoirs A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Vol. III by Charles Greville
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
