Did you know?
If you're confident of the trustworthiness of your confidants, you're tuned into the origins of the word confidant. The word comes, via French, from the Italian confidente, meaning "trusting, having trust in," from Latin confīdere, meaning "to put one’s trust in, have confidence in.” Other descendants of confīdere in English include confide, confidence, confident, and confidential, all of which ultimately have Latin fīdere, meaning "to trust (in), rely (on)," as their root. Confidant (and its variant confidante, used especially of a woman) and confident are often confused, a topic about which we have plenty to say.
Did you know?
Is it confident or confidant? (Or is it confidante?)
If you find yourself unsure whether you should choose confident or confidant don’t feel bad; confidant comes to English from the French word confident, and when the word first entered our language it was often spelled that way, rather than as confidant. The difference is quite simple: confidant is a noun (meaning "a person in whom you confide things"), and confident is an adjective (defined as “having confidence”). You may well be confident in your confidant, but you would not be confidant in your confident. Although this distinction has not always been observed by writers, confidante is generally used for a female confidant. The word confidant is more frequently used to describe a man, but it may be applied to either gender.
Examples of confidant in a Sentence
The New Yorker, New Yorker, 25 June 2025
Musk campaigned with Trump shortly after his first assassination attempt and quickly became one of his closest confidants.
—Cate Martel, The Hill, 6 June 2025
There’s nobody in either of their lives who has replaced one of them as a confidant, an emotional support.
—Barry Levitt, Time, 30 May 2025
The book, largely relying on anonymous sources, argues that Biden’s confidants and inner circle kept his deteriorating state from the American people, resulting in the Republican victory in the 2024 presidential election.
—Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 20 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for confidant
Cite this Entry
“Confidant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/confidant. Accessed 4 Jul. 2025.
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confidant
noun
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