comrade

play

noun com·rade \ ˈkäm-ˌrad , -rəd , especially British -ˌrād \

Definition of comrade

1 a :an intimate friend or associate :companion

" … reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned … "
—Daniel Defoe

b :a fellow soldier

comrades in battle

[from its use as a form of address by communists]

:communist

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comradeliness

play \ˈkäm-ˌrad-lē-nəs\ noun

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comradely

adjective

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comradeship

play \ˈkäm-ˌrad-ˌship\ noun

See comrade defined for English-language learners

See comrade defined for kids

Examples of comrade in a Sentence

He enjoys spending time with his old army comrades.
the boy, and two others who are known to be his comrades, are wanted for questioning by the police

Recent Examples of comrade from the Web

Demopolis was founded 200 years ago by fugitive French comrades of the exiled Napoleon, and it was named for a democratic ideal.

— the washington post, AL.com, "A police car damaged an Alabama Confederate monument and reopened a town's painful wounds," 20 July 2017
Some comrades and brothers may be worn out by the right’s great media campaign.

— Washington Post, "Woman killed, 4 injured as violence erupts at Venezuela vote," 16 July 2017
In backing Trump, perhaps no objective was a bigger motivator for Putin and his oligarchic comrades than the easing of U.S. sanctions on Russia.

— jonah shepp, Daily Intelligencer, "How Has Supporting Trump Worked Out for Russia?," 16 July 2017
Some comrades and brothers may be worn out by the right’s great media campaign.

— Washington Post, "Woman killed, 4 injured as violence erupts at Venezuela vote," 16 July 2017
Some comrades and brothers may be worn out by the right’s great media campaign.

— fabiola sanchez, The Seattle Times, "Venezuelan opposition hopes for big turnout in protest vote," 15 July 2017
A few of Caesar’s comrades follow him on his journey to find the Colonel.

— lindsey bahr, Detroit Free Press, "Review: Latest ‘Apes’ tale is a great time at the movies," 12 July 2017
But as his comrades and family mourned, Ron Ridgeway sat in harsh North Vietnamese prisons for five years, often in solitary confinement, mentally at war with his captors and fighting for a life that was technically over.

— michael e. ruane, Alaska Dispatch News, "Marked dead in Vietnam, a long journey back to life," 9 July 2017
Days before he was killed, Burger was struck in the arm by shrapnel, but requested to return to duty to help his comrades, Weinzirl said.

— michael brice-saddler, baltimoresun.com, "Family, friends gather to dedicate Perryville bridge to fallen Marine," 1 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'comrade.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

In Latin, camara or camera denoted a vaulted ceiling or roof. Later, the word simply mean “room, chamber” and was inherited by many European languages with that meaning. In the Spanish, the word became cámara, and a derivative of that was camarada “a group of soldiers quartered in a room” and hence “fellow soldier, companion.” That Spanish word was borrowed into French as camarade and then into Elizabethan English as both camerade and comerade.

Origin and Etymology of comrade

Middle French camarade group sleeping in one room, roommate, companion, from Old Spanish camarada, from cámara room, from Late Latin camera, camara — more at chamber

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1544

See Words from the same year