colleague
noun
col·league
ˈkä-(ˌ)lēg 
: 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
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
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
In a time where women are adopting AI tools at a 25% lower rate than men, Pinterest’s Chief People Officer Doniel Sutton advises her female colleagues to lean in.
—Kristin Stoller, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2025
There’s also Iman’s colleague, Ghaderi (Reza Akhlaghi), who advises him to sign a detainee’s death sentence without even reviewing the file, which is the way things seem to function in their department.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2025
Sheldon and her colleagues wanted to test whether stories of the exact same events told with different types of details would activate different hippocampal networks.
—Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2025
One officer approached the cameraman and identified himself and his colleagues as members of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department at the West Hollywood station.
—James Factora, Them., 20 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for colleague
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Kristin Stoller, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2025
There’s also Iman’s colleague, Ghaderi (Reza Akhlaghi), who advises him to sign a detainee’s death sentence without even reviewing the file, which is the way things seem to function in their department.
—Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2025
Sheldon and her colleagues wanted to test whether stories of the exact same events told with different types of details would activate different hippocampal networks.
—Allison Parshall, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2025
One officer approached the cameraman and identified himself and his colleagues as members of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department at the West Hollywood station.
—James Factora, Them., 20 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for colleague
Cite this Entry
“Colleague.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colleague. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
colleague
noun
col·league
ˈkäl-ˌēg
: an associate in a profession or office
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