comrade

noun

com·​rade ˈkäm-ˌrad 

-rəd

especially British -ˌrād

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

2

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

comradeliness

ˈkäm-ˌrad-lē-nəs 

noun

comradely adjective

comradeship

ˈkäm-ˌrad-ˌship 

noun

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.

Synonyms of comrade

• associate
• colleague
• friend
• buddy
• accomplice
• fellow
• companion
• peer
• classmate
• compatriot
• cohort

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 on the Web

Amjad Yousef had appeared in a video leaked four years ago that purportedly showed him and his comrades fatally shooting dozens of people during the country’s civil war. —ABC News, 3 June 2026

The comrades put up their Platner signs. —Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 3 June 2026

Sukhmati described how her comrades would raid police stations to steal weapons. —Dhruv Tikekar, CNN Money, 30 May 2026

Not abandoning comrades, alive or dead, is a traditional tenet of successful military culture. —Arthur I. Cyr, Chicago Tribune, 27 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

1544, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing comrade

• brother/sister/comrade in arms
• comrade in arms

Rhymes for comrade

• dryad
• dyad
• forbad
• grandad
• granddad
• keypad
• nomad
• notepad
• postgrad
• sinbad
• tetrad
• triad

Kids Definition

comrade

noun

com·​rade ˈkäm-ˌrad 

-rəd

: a close friend or associate

comradely adjective

comradeship

-ˌship 

noun