correspondent

American  

[kawr-uh-spon-duhnt, kor-] / ˌkɔr əˈspɒn dənt, ˌkɒr- /

noun

correspondents plural

1. a person who communicates by letters.

2. a person employed by a news agency, periodical, television network, etc., to gather, report, or contribute news, articles, and the like regularly from a distant place.

3. a person who contributes a letter or letters to a newspaper, magazine, etc.

4. a person or firm that has regular business relations with another, especially at a distance.

5. a thing that corresponds to something else.

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adjective

1. consistent, similar, or analogous; corresponding.

correspondent British  

/ ˌkɒrɪˈspɒndənt /

noun

1. a person who communicates by letter or by letters

2. a person employed by a newspaper, etc, to report on a special subject or to send reports from a foreign country

3. a person or firm that has regular business relations with another, esp one in a different part of the country or abroad

4. something that corresponds to another

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adjective

1. similar or analogous

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• noncorrespondent
  adjective
• precorrespondent
  adjective
• correspondently
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• correspondents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of correspondent

1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin corrēspondent- (stem of corrēspondēns ), present participle of corrēspondēre to correspond; see -ent

Explanation

A correspondent is a reporter who writes or records stories on one topic or from one region. If you're hired as a radio station's financial correspondent, you'll need to do a lot of research on the economy. A journalist might work as a TV station's Middle East correspondent or a newspaper's education correspondent. You can also call yourself a correspondent if you're a regular letter or email writer, corresponding, or communicating, with someone. As an adjective, though, correspondent means "matching or agreeing." The word is rooted in the Medieval Latin correspondere, "to answer together."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

correspondent correspondents

Guest: Josh Keating, senior correspondent covering foreign affairs at Vox.

From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2026

Former “CBS Evening News” and morning show anchor Norah O’Donnell will also join “60 Minutes” full time as a correspondent, expanding her role with the show.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

Ross Douthat, a longtime conservative voice on the New York Times op-ed page, has been hired as full-time correspondent on “60 Minutes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

BBC's North America correspondent Shaimaa Khalil was inside the courtroom.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

Sadly, this correspondent has been caught in the embarrassing position of barking up two wrong trees at the same time; but only because tastes have changed in the matter.

From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Author

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat and documentarian Sebastian Junger are among those joining the program as correspondents.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

He was also one of the first correspondents to reach New York after the 9/11 terror attacks.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

Tasnim reported that one of its correspondents had reported that locations around the island "were struck by projectiles from the American enemy".

From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026

Last month, Weiss orchestrated a dramatic shake-up at the iconic “60 Minutes” news program, with top executives and three well-known correspondents tossed out.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

Jane Bromet, who phoned in daily reports for Outside Online,! was one of the correspondents on Fischer’s team, but she wasn’t a client and didn’t have permission to climb higher than Base Camp.

From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

Related Words

• contributor
• journalist
• reporter
• writer