colleague

noun

col·​league ˈkä-(ˌ)lēg How to pronounce colleague (audio)
: an associate or coworker typically in a profession or in a civil or ecclesiastical office and often of similar rank or status : a fellow worker or professional
colleagueship noun

Did you know?

Which of the following words come from the same source as colleague: college, legacy, collaborate, allegation, collar, relegate, delegate? It might be easier to guess if you know that the ancestor in question is legare, a Latin verb meaning "to choose or send as a deputy or emissary" or "to bequeath." All of the words in the list above except collaborate (which comes from the Latin collaborare, meaning "to labor together") and collar (from collum, collus, Latin for "neck") are descendants of legare.

Examples of colleague in a Sentence

Not since Cronkite's CBS mentor and colleague Edward R. Murrow lifted Senator Joe McCarthy by the skunk tail for public inspection had one TV broadcast reflected such a fateful climate change in public opinion. James Wolcott, Vanity Fair, June 2003
My colleague Gene Sperling and I were standing over my speakerphone, but for all Mario Cuomo knew we were on our knees. George Stephanopoulos, Newsweek, 15 Mar. 1999
Nineteenth-century naturalist Thomas Henry Huxley, a colleague of Charles Darwin, was the first to suggest that dinosaurs and birds were related. Laura Tangley, U.S. News & World Report, 6 July 1998
… it gets noticed no more than an hour later by another colleague of mine, whom I've never met personally but know to be an art historian … John Barth, Atlantic, March 1995
A colleague of mine will be speaking at the conference. on her first day at work her colleagues went out of their way to make her feel welcome
Recent Examples on the Web Men often had rigid expectations on how their new female colleagues should dress, as Malloy had demonstrated. Leah Dolan, CNN, 8 Oct. 2024 Fischer’s emotional post details the ups and downs of treatment, credits her village for holding her up along the way (including husband Lee and Office co-star and close colleague Angela Kinsey). Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Oct. 2024 This prompts your colleagues to reflect and better understand the significance of your strategy. Sherzod Odilov, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024 Wehner and two colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory put out a provisional analysis that found that, in some places in Georgia and the Carolinas, climate change may have caused as much as 50 percent more rainfall during Hurricane Helene. Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for colleague 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'colleague.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle French collegue, from Latin collega, from com- + legare to depute — more at legate

First Known Use

circa 1533, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of colleague was circa 1533

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Dictionary Entries Near colleague

Cite this Entry

“Colleague.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colleague. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024.

Kids Definition

colleague

noun
col·​league ˈkäl-ˌēg How to pronounce colleague (audio)
: an associate in a profession or office

More from Merriam-Webster on colleague

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