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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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:
While opening the phone to show it to a friend, he heard a “loud audible crack” and felt a small bump on the display where lines suddenly appeared.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
"She's returned after the double earthquakes when Venezuela needs her," adds her friend, Manuel.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
Koenig’s “Star Trek” costar George Takei, who played Sulu, paid tribute to his friend and colleague on social media.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
He wasn’t working per se, just helping out Keket, a friend.
From Slate ● Oct. 26, 2026
‘I knew him. There was a time when he was my best friend.’
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
Jenna Ortega plays Klara, the B1 model of a robot companion known as Artificial Friend, or AF.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
A first-grade district lesson plan presented to teachers called “My Friend AI” suggested teachers use language like, “AI is like a smart helper that can learn and help us do things.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Friend of Slate Jay Willis, the editor in chief of Balls & Strikes, writes about the devolution of SCOTUSblog, the go-to outlet for Supreme Court news for nearly a quarter century.
From Slate ● Oct. 1, 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
"You require passage for a hundred Dothraki, all their horses, yourself and this knight, and three dragons?" said the captain of the great cog Ardent Friend before he walked away laughing.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Do you and your friends discuss your savings, debt and salary, or do you just complain about how expensive brunch has gotten and send the same $20 back and forth to each other on Venmo?
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026
She said after the tools were stolen last week, Litberg got on the phone and began calling friends to borrow tools.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
Like many in Saguenay, Boivin has a long list of family members and friends in the aluminum business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026
It’s the way he was with his friends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
“Then no. Because I don’t think friends should ask friends to stick their paw into a trap so they can get a snack.”
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Just before Christmas 2022, someone purporting to be a San Diego woman named Viktoria Zara friended Kevin on Facebook.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2025
Riley testified he was a passionate fisherman and friended Hiles on Facebook in early January 2021 because Hiles had a large following and posted fishing videos on YouTube.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 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
Six years later, in July 2007, with camp and about two dozen mutual friends in common, she friended him on Facebook before they each headed off to college.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2021
Since Tea Cake and Janie had friended with the Bahaman workers in the ’Glades, they, the “Saws,” had been gradually drawn into the American crowd.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
In Slatten’s case, Singh had been catfishing her via a fake Facebook profile, friending her in 2013, but he ultimately came clean about his identity.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
Imagine people friending you six months before an election and they're talking to you.
From Salon ● Feb. 27, 2025
But even if you could somehow equalize those things, the researchers suggest that would close only about half the gap, because of friending bias — the propensity of people to mostly befriend others like them.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 7, 2022
The News Feed, which dropped the “News” from its name earlier this year, pioneered a social feed that learns from explicit cues you give it, such as friending someone or following a page.
From The Verge ● Jun. 15, 2022
But all the time I knew perfectly well that the great show of honor and "friending" was not for me alone.
From The Story of My Life Recollections and Reflections by Ellen Terry
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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.
