What does "collusion" mean?

A private, cooperative agreement or arrangement between groups that otherwise maintain the pretense of competition, contention or non-cooperation.

What is a synonym for "collusion"?

Common synonyms include: connivance, accompaniment, accordance, agreement, alliance, artifice.

//kəˈluːʒən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Noun

1
A private, cooperative agreement or arrangement between groups that otherwise maintain the pretense of competition, contention or non-cooperation. countable, uncountable
"Furthermore, there is good reason for firms to try to collude without express communication, and thus find themselves dealing with less than full mutual understanding."
2
secret agreement wordnet
3
A private agreement for a fraudulent or illegal purpose; conspiracy. countable, uncountable
"Such tunges unhappy hath made great diviſion In realmes, in cities, by ſuche fals abuſion; Of fals fickil tunges ſuche cloked colluſion"
4
agreement on a secret plot wordnet

"At this time, we should wipe out crime and collusion."

Dated from the 14th century C.E. as Middle English collusioun, collusion; from Old French collusion, from Latin collusio (“act of colluding”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.