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Who was Alexander Graham Bell's colleague during the invention of the telephone?

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colleague

American  

[kol-eeg] / ˈkɒl ig /

noun

• colleagues
  plural

1. 

   an associate.

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colleague British  

/ ˈkɒliːɡ /

noun

1. a fellow worker or member of a staff, department, profession, etc

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Usage

What does colleague mean? A colleague is someone you work with or someone who’s in the same profession as you, especially a peer within that profession. Colleague can be a synonym for coworker, which is someone who has the same employer as you. But it also used to refer to people who have different employers but who work in the same or a very similar profession, especially when they regularly interact or share knowledge. For example, two medical researchers who work for different universities but who collaborate to publish research findings would be called colleagues. Example: Sarah has received an outpouring of support from her fellow attorneys at the firm as well as many of her colleagues in the legal community.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• colleagueship
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• colleagues
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of colleague

First recorded in 1515–25; from Middle French collegue, from Latin collēga, equivalent to col- “with, together” ( see col- ¹) + -lēga, derivative of legere “to choose, gather”

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Compare meaning

How does colleague compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• colleague vs. coworker

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Explanation

A colleague is someone you work with at your job. When you are a teacher, the other teachers are your colleagues. When you work as a cashier at 7-11, the guy at the deli counter is your colleague as well. Your colleagues are usually people at the same level or rank as you are. You would not usually consider your boss to be a colleague. This noun is from French collègue, from Latin collega "a person chosen along with another," from the prefix com- "with" plus legare "to appoint as a deputy."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

colleague colleagues

As one former colleague remarked to me, “The dream of the ’90s internet is well and truly kaput.”

From Slate ● Nov. 6, 2026

Building on earlier investigations by former lab colleague King Lam Hui, PhD, Ma identified the human gene that produces the enzyme, giving researchers a way to examine its function much more closely.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026

"To see a colleague lose his life in such a manner, it's beyond any words that I can put today," said the Spanish coach.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

Pope Leo XIV has weighed in on the moral pitfalls of seeing AI products as sentient, as my colleague Nilesh Christopher reports.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2026

White’s old colleague, Agent Frank Smith, was among the convoy but survived.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

I’ll be away for the next couple of weeks, but my WSJ colleagues will continue bringing you Markets A.M. every weekday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

She quotes freely from poetry in conversation, and says she keeps the poems that inspire her in an “internal Rolodex,” as offerings to colleagues and students.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

“If departing colleagues receive little support, it can damage morale and make people question their own job security.”

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

To explore the question, Anderson and his colleagues conducted a 12-week study involving 74 adults with overweight or obesity.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026

He told his colleagues that he was cultivating a new Soviet source.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau

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