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Concomitant was introduced into English at a time when many people were criticizing the use of Latinate forms in favor of more "native" words from Old English. As a descendant of Latin concomitari ("to accompany") and ultimately of "comes," the Latin word for companion, "concomitant" may well have been initially derided as an ostentatious inkhorn term. Indeed, two associated words, the verb concomitate, meaning "to accompany," and another adjective, concomitaneous, meaning "of a concomitant nature," didn't survive to accompany "concomitant" into the 18th century.
Examples of concomitant in a Sentence
Stephen Whitty, Entertainment Weekly, 12 Feb. 1999
The Lincoln and Johnson plans for settling the problems of peace and freedom never seriously touched on the concomitant problem of equality.
—John Hope Franklin, "The Two Worlds of Race," 1965,
in Race and History, 1989
But it was observed that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the Southern States, and that some concomitant measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to them.
—Thomas Jefferson 4 Feb. 1818,
in Thomas Jefferson: Writings, 1984
The drug's risks increase with the concomitant use of alcohol.
an improvement in the facilities led to a concomitant improvement in morale
Noun
In the local bickering which was a concomitant of the grand campaigns of the wars, there may have been considerable fighting around fortifications, even if on a relatively small and brief scale.
—Anthony Goodman, The War of the Roses, (1981) 1996
… there is a demand for schools, professional services, and such other concomitants of a full society as courthouses and jails.
—Anthony Bailey, New Yorker, 25 May 1987
hunger, a lack of education, and other concomitants of poverty
disease is all too often one of the concomitants of poverty
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 1 June 2025
The law of diminishing returns can be applied to this process, whereby each marginal risk prevention effort does not reap concomitant rewards.
—Saleem H. Ali, Forbes.com, 30 May 2025
Damien Cave, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2025
Early capitalism and its disciplinary concomitant, the then-nascent field of political economy, understood workers not as people, with a craving for vastness, but as animals, who aspire to nothing more ornate than subsistence.
—Becca Rothfeld, Harper's Magazine, 2 Mar. 2024
See All Example Sentences for concomitant
Cite this Entry
“Concomitant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/concomitant. Accessed 1 Jul. 2025.
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