Colleague
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A fellow member of a profession, staff, academic faculty or other organization; an associate, a workmate.
"Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial.[…]Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism. Dr Yoshimoto and his colleagues would like to add liver cancer to that list."
- 2 a person who is member of one's class or profession wordnet
- 3 an associate that one works with wordnet
- 1 To unite or associate with another or with others. transitive
"Young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth ...Colleagued with the dream of his advantage, ...hath not failed to pester us with message Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father. - Hamlet (Act I, Scene 2)"
Example
More examples"My colleague doctored the report."
Etymology
From Middle French collegue, from Latin collēga (“a partner in office”), from com- (“with”) + lēgō (“to send on an embassy”), from lēx (“law”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.