comrade

noun

com·​rade ˈkäm-ˌrad How to pronounce comrade (audio)
-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 noun
comradely adjective
comradeship 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.

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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
There were a lot of people, maybe more than five hundred, activists and relatives and friends and comrades. Mariana Enriquez october 2, Literary Hub, 2 Oct. 2025 Minnesota Wild players, who parked in the players’ garage just off the road temporarily dubbed W 97th Street, are delighted to see their comrade for effectively the next nine years. Michael Russo, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025 Edwards and the surviving agents who were part of Haverford’s team spread out to Istanbul, Tehran, and Virginia to avenge their fallen comrades. Demetrius Patterson, HollywoodReporter, 30 Sep. 2025 But Godard, unlike some of his comrades, has yet to direct his first picture. Justin Chang, New Yorker, 27 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for comrade

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of comrade was in 1544

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Comrade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comrade. Accessed 5 Oct. 2025.

Kids Definition

comrade

noun
com·​rade ˈkäm-ˌrad How to pronounce comrade (audio)
-rəd
: a close friend or associate
comradely adjective
comradeship noun

More from Merriam-Webster on comrade

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