COGS Synonyms: 40 Similar and Opposite Words

cogs

noun

plural of cog

as in underlings

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cogs

Noun

His underlings kidnapped and tortured a dealer who refused to pay, the indictment said.

— Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
Lamb, who was once floated for the service’s top job, treats his current position as a kind of penance for past sins, both for himself and for his underlings.

— Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of underlings

Noun

That content becomes useful proof for shoppers and a clearer authority signal for AI assistants than another polished brand promo.

— Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 20 Oct. 2026
Those services usually cover assistants who help people with daily tasks such as bathing, laundry or cooking.

— Ana Ceballos Follow, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of assistants

Noun

No matter how powerful, dictators have always needed subordinates—censors, propagandists, security guards, police officers, intelligence analysts, and local bureaucrats—to carry out their orders.

— Seva Gunitsky, Foreign Affairs, 1 Oct. 2026
Investigators have accused one of his subordinates of running a fraud scheme, though Kravchenko himself has not been charged or named a suspect.

— ABC News, ABC News, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of subordinates

Noun

The State Department on Wednesday ordered nonemergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia amid escalating attacks by the Houthis on Saudi infrastructure.

— Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 22 Oct. 2026
Flock employees urged the company to adopt stronger security after a 2024 breach.

— Douglas MacMillan, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of employees

Noun

Surrounding yourself with a bunch of yes-men is not a recipe for success—at least according to AT&T CEO John Stankey.

— Preston Fore, Fortune, 6 Sep. 2026
High-profile right-wing accounts that previously served as yes-men for Musk—such as Ian Miles Cheong, a Malaysian who purportedly lives in the United Arab Emirates and posts incessant, racist drivel about American politics—have melted down over the platform’s decision to dox users.

— Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 24 Nov. 2025

Definition of yes-men

Noun

Her philanthropic activities extended far beyond her own community to include Indigenous inmates, Chinese immigrants, and white laborers, along with countless other Angelenos.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2026
In the previous decades, Japan had brought in many Korean, Chinese, and Taiwanese laborers, often under duress, to work in factories and mines, usually in atrocious conditions.

— Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026

Definition of laborers

Noun

Conflict-of-interest rules may bar some workers and their families from holding certain stocks; the Treasury has moved to ban ESG funds from accounts, but there’s no way for people to keep certain stocks out of their kids’ accounts.

— Diane Brady, Fortune, 20 Oct. 2026
His father, Amin Mia, 26, said no health workers came to their remote village in Sylhet to offer vaccinations in time.

— Reuters, NBC news, 19 Oct. 2026

Definition of workers

Noun

The video shows four deputies running after Garza along Interstate 10 in Palm Springs, with Garza facing the deputies several times while holding an object in his hands.

— Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 24 Oct. 2026
Alaska’s bid for statehood, in the late nineteen-fifties, was in part a matter of keeping the hands of Seattle businessmen off local salmon stocks.

— Zach Helfand, New Yorker, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of hands

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.

Cite this Entry

Style

“Cogs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cogs. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of cogs

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

puissant

Popular in Grammar & Usage

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 23

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Popular

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes