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

• 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

During the purges of the late 1930s, a new generation of young and ambitious politicians and officials quickly arrived to take the places of Stalin’s purged comrades. —Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 8 Sep. 2025

Garraty is forced to watch several of his comrades' executions while fighting for his own life with a gun to his head. —Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Sep. 2025

Edwards, along with protesting comrade Tom Hopper (Raife Hastings) and crass CIA contractor Jules Landry (Luke Hemsworth) join a secret CIA unit fighting terrorism in Europe. —Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2025

Optimus Prime sends his comrade, B-127 (Dylan O'Brien), to Earth to await his arrival. —Rendy Jones August 27, EW.com, 27 Aug. 2025

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