partner
Americannoun
-
partners
plural
-
a person who shares or is associated with another in some action or endeavor; sharer; associate.
- Synonyms:
- accomplice, accessory, colleague
-
Law.
-
a person associated with another or others as a principal or a contributor of capital in a business or a joint venture, usually sharing its risks and profits.
-
-
a spouse; a husband or a wife.
-
the person with whom one cohabits in a romantic relationship.
I'd like you to meet my partner, Sarah.
-
either of two people who dance together.
my favorite partner in the waltz.
-
a player on the same side or team as another.
My tennis partner was an excellent player.
-
Nautical. partners, a framework of timber round a hole in a ship's deck, to support a mast, capstan, pump, etc.
verb (used with object)
-
partners,
present (3rd person singular)
-
partnered,
past participle, past
-
partnering
present participle
-
to associate as a partner or partners with.
-
to serve as the partner of.
noun
-
an ally or companion
a partner in crime
-
a member of a partnership
-
one of a pair of dancers or players on the same side in a game
my bridge partner
-
either member of a couple in a relationship
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
partnersimple
-
partnerssimple
-
have partneredperfect
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has partneredperfect
-
am partneringprogressive
-
are partneringprogressive
-
is partneringprogressive
-
have been partneringperfect progressive
-
has been partneringperfect progressive
Past
-
partneredsimple
-
had partneredperfect
-
was partneringprogressive
-
were partneringprogressive
-
had been partneringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of partner
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English partener, alteration of parcener by association with part
Explanation
If you open a lemonade stand with your brother, then your brother is your business partner. Partner means "to pair up." At a square dance, the call "partner up!" means it's time to find someone to dance with. In business, there are often multiple partners — each one owns a share of the business, and has a share of the risk. Some people call their spouse or the person they're in a long-term relationship with their partner — it has more egalitarian senses than "husband" or "wife," and signals commitment even if you're not married.
Vocabulary lists containing partner
"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act I
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Relationships
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Chapter 20: The Industrial Age
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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:
The United States is by far Canada's biggest trading partner.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
“Happy wife, happy life,” Monfils said after kissing his doubles partner to celebrate their second victory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo married his partner Georgina Rodriguez earlier this month and has said this is likely to be his last season as a player so he can focus more on his family.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
One way to do this is simply writing everything out on “one page,” said Scott Bishop, a certified financial planner and partner at Presidio Wealth Partners.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
She flashes a rosy smile before turning away and finding a new dance partner to ambush.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
Mr. Hara and Ms. Kobayashi, partners in life and work, use film to explore uncomfortable topics and invite viewers to watch and squirm.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
"Family, faith and doing good in the community where we live and work" have been key commitments that Parton and her partners have strived for over the past four decades, he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026
White House spokesman Kush Desai said Canada was offered the most generous trade deal of any U.S. trading partners despite being overwhelmingly reliant on access to the American economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Third, import data for some of Iran's trading partners, such as Iraq, is incomplete.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
She cruised out through the doorway and was followed by her two partners.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
“We basically borrowed that program and then partnered with them,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
In 2023, Unilever partnered with TikTok to launch a dedicated CleanTok community after the genre had amassed 78 billion views on the social media platform.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Harbor partnered with Acadian to design and launch the fund in March 2019.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 12, 2026
The company also has partnered with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini to allow shoppers to purchase products directly.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
“I got partnered with Bernard. I told you about him. He’s mean? Today he knocked his whole desk over.”
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
That was how Carlos Alcaraz settled back into competitive action at the US Open, partnering the American great as she returned to her home slam after a four-year absence.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
She added “baking icon” to her c.v. in 2022, when she began partnering with Duncan Hines on a line of cake, biscuit and cornbread mixes.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026
The scene thrums with the complexity of domestic life, the simultaneity of partnering and parenting, as well as of looking, being looked at, being overlooked, and being visually represented.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
“I have a lot of celebrity friends, and we’re always partnering with them around peak cultural moments, whether that be the Super Bowl, Winter Olympics, the drop of a new album, or anything in between.”
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
Who, by the way, clearly doesn't want to be partnering up with me, either.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
