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

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Etymology

Origin of correspondent

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

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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

Chief political correspondent Josh Dawsey went back to his alma mater, the University of South Carolina, where the campus is booming but many students he spoke with are uneasy about their own economic futures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

She previously worked as a Washington correspondent for the Kansas City Star and an investigative reporter for the Star and McClatchy newspapers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Mikael Corre, Vatican correspondent for France's La Croix newspaper, told AFP the way Leo is perceived has shifted.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

BBC correspondent Joe Inwood explains how Pillay's childhood in South Africa led her to become a driving force in international law and human rights, from Rwanda to Gaza.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

A war correspondent triumphantly announced that the lodgment area from which the Allied Armies would soon launch their major offensive into the heart of occupied France was now adequate and secure.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

British units stationed near their U.S. allies would, according to one of Trautman’s correspondents, “beg and borrow” ASEs whenever they could.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

The cites worst affected Wednesday included Paris, Bordeaux in the southwest and Lyon in the southeast, and the northern city of Lille where police again used tear gas in clashes, AFP correspondents said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

The BBC's correspondents who covered the address have picked five key moments that stood out.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Without access to the grounds, affected journalists also lose their regular workspace and access to areas such as Reporters’ Lane, where television correspondents frequently deliver live reports from the White House complex.

From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026

That Prendergast had selected Trude to be one of his correspondents was not surprising.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

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Related Words

• contributor
• journalist
• reporter
• writer

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