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
Steven Sloan The Associated Press, Arkansas Online, 26 Feb. 2026
Summers’ resignation is the latest fallout from the Justice Department’s recent release of millions of pages of records pertaining to Epstein and his longtime confidant and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.
—Collin Binkley, Chicago Tribune, 25 Feb. 2026
Canales called Brad Idzik the lead play designer of the offense, someone who served as Canales’s main confidant all the way back to their time together with the Seattle Seahawks.
—Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 25 Feb. 2026
Analysts saw the removal of Zhang, a longtime confidant of Xi, as the most significant ouster yet.
—Jennifer Jett, NBC news, 25 Feb. 2026
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 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
confidant
noun
