Jump To:

• confederate
  confederate

  adjective

  united in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.
• Confederate
  Confederate

  adjective

  of, supporting, or relating to the Confederate States of America

confederate

American  

[kuhn-fed-er-it, -fed-rit, kuhn-fed-uh-reyt] / kənˈfɛd ər ɪt, -ˈfɛd rɪt, kənˈfɛd əˌreɪt /

adjective

1. united in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.

2. (initial capital letter) of or relating to the Confederate States of America.

   the Confederate army.

---

noun

confederates plural

1. a person, group, nation, etc., united with others in a confederacy; an ally.

   Synonyms:

   cohort, partner, associate

2. an accomplice, especially in a mischievous or criminal act.

3. (initial capital letter) a supporter of the Confederate States of America.

verb (used with or without object)

confederated, confederating

1. to unite in a league, alliance, or conspiracy.

confederate ¹ British  

noun

1. a nation, state, or individual that is part of a confederacy

2. someone who is part of a conspiracy; accomplice

---

adjective

1. united in a confederacy; allied

verb

1. to form into or become part of a confederacy

Confederate ² British  

/ -ˈfɛdrɪt, kənˈfɛdərɪt /

adjective

1. of, supporting, or relating to the Confederate States of America

---

noun

1. a supporter of the Confederate States of America

Confederate Cultural  

1. A descriptive term for the institutions and people of the Confederacy.

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• half-Confederate
  adjective
• nonconfederate
  adjective
• pro-Confederate
  adjective
• unconfederated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• confederates
  plural

Etymology

Origin of confederate

1350–1400; Middle English confederat < Late Latin confoederātus (past participle of confoederāre to unite in a league), equivalent to con- con- + foeder- (stem of foedus ) treaty ( see fidelity) + -ātus -ate ¹

Explanation

A confederate is an ally — someone who's on your side. Your brother, the artist, might be your only confederate in your goal of studying modern dance in Paris this summer. A confederate is anyone who supports you and works toward the same goal with you. When it is used in the context of government or politics, it means "united by a treaty," like two countries that have joined forces against a third. When the first letter is capitalized, Confederate refers to the southern United States during the Civil War, which were confederates in their fight to secede from the rest of the country.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

confederate Confederate confederates confederated confederating

Warnock became Georgia’s first Black senator and the first Black Democratic senator from a former confederate state.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 24, 2022

The first march I ever attended was a protest in January 2000, to bring down the confederate flag from the top of the South Carolina State House.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2022

We celebrate the notice of emancipation finally reaching Texas to end slavery in the last confederate state in 1865.

From Scientific American ● Jun. 17, 2022

Roth, who had mentored the progress of Lelchuk’s “American Mischief” toward its ultimate success, had once again happened on a compliant confederate.

From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2021

As the young men tried to squeeze by, the confederate looked up, annoyed.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

On a drizzly morning in June, all was still on Tuskegee's South Main Street, a two-lane road that runs into the heart of the town square, where a towering Confederate monument loomed over the emptiness.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

At the rally in Montgomery, chants of “we won’t go back” echoed through crowds gathered near the Alabama Capitol, where both Confederate and civil rights monuments stand within view of one another.

From Salon ● May 17, 2026

Last October, the only outdoor monument in Washington to honor a Confederate general -- a statue of Albert Pike -- was restored.

From Barron's ● May 17, 2026

Ms. Phillips’s father was a World War II veteran and a failed businessman, the offspring of a once-proud Confederate family; he bore his humiliations with laconic stoicism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

In the 1950s and 1960s, civil rights activism and new federal laws inspired the same resistance to racial progress and once again led to a spike in the use of Confederate imagery.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

A perennial target of assassins, James survived the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes and confederates hoped to blow up Parliament.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025

Indeed, Magliocca testified it was understood the goal of the provision was to keep a wide range of former confederates out of public office in the years after the war.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 3, 2023

The organizers of that meeting — industry confederates who know both men — hoped that a lunch at Mr. Zucker’s house on Amagansett’s tony Hedges Lane would clear the air.

From New York Times ● Jun. 4, 2023

The FBI asked for the affidavit to be sealed because the agency has "not yet identified all potential criminal confederates no located all evidence related to its investigation."

From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2022

And loyal confederates, Hamlet and I never revealed that we were authors of this tragicomedy.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

While the proposed project site is just south of the Yakama Reservation, it is part of the confederated tribes’ vast ancestral homelands.

From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2023

Gorbachev, who struggled to form even a loosely confederated union out of the fifteen Soviet republics, blamed Yeltsin and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus for plotting illegally to dissolve the bloc.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 3, 2016

President Barack Obama has approved federal assistance for Okanogan County and the Colville confederated tribes to help repair or replace public infrastructure lost in this summer’s wildfires.

From Washington Times ● Aug. 20, 2014

It was issued the year before the Constitutional Convention that would send the confederated former colonies into the epic called the United States of America. 

From Forbes ● Aug. 18, 2014

The unions of France were confederated in a.d.

From Church History, Vol. 3 of 3 by Kurtz, J. H.

In Washington, Bosnian Croats and Muslims signed the constitution of a new federated state, confederating it with Croatia.

From Time Magazine Archive

A combine "conspiring, combining, confederating, agreeing and cooperating between or among themselves."

From Time Magazine Archive

He entertained a plan of confederating the colonies together, and aspired to become himself the viceroy of the contemplated union.

From History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia by Campbell, Charles

In the case of Lewis Payne, the commission, having maturely considered the evidence adduced, finds the accused as follows: Of the specification, "Guilty, except combining, confederating, and conspiring with Edward Spangler; of this, not guilty."

From A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 6, part 2: Andrew Johnson by Richardson, James D. (James Daniel)

He would rather take his chances of defeating the King's troops, confederating with other colonies, and securing the aid of one or more of England's enemy nations.

From Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 by Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson