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:
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
“The Male Shopper Project” also brought to mind how, right before the pandemic, I was having coffee with a friend whose husband had taken their young child to the supermarket.
From Salon ● 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
As we passed, a Polish friend dropped to her knees and made the sign of the Cross.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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 Jacob Charles, law professor at Pepperdine University, argues the justices should simply stay out of this dispute and respect states’ rights to rule themselves.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 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
Friend and owner of Phoebe Peacock, a boutique gift shop and perfumery, Jennifer Hardaway, encouraged Cassaday and Jacob to reopen near her on Magnolia Avenue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
“Alec. Alec Von Raumer. From San Fran. Friend of Cloke’s. He was in the room the other day and we got talking. Lots of old Renfrew boys at Hampden, he says.”
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
"It helped me make friends in school, talking to a few people who also knew Bleach and about our favourite characters," recalls the 30-year-old.
From BBC ● Oct. 26, 2026
He described the Fable as a “magical” place where he’s found numerous friends and opportunities.
From Los Angeles Times ● 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
So why is it hard to get our friends to reimburse us when we split the bill?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026
After the sermon, friends and more distant family started home.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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
“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
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.
