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

Rumors of relationships between executives and underlings went around on campus.

— Claire Stapleton, New Yorker, 18 July 2026
France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival gets underway this weekend with Illumination’s Minions & Monsters, the latest movie devoted to the mischievous army of yellow underlings first introduced in 2010 breakout Despicable Me.

— Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 19 June 2026

Definition of underlings

Noun

Achord meets with his two assistants, 36-year-old Corey Harkey, who played for the Rams from 2012-2016, and Jeff Koonz, who was a Packers defensive assistant last season and the West Virginia special teams coordinator before that.

— Matt Schneidman, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
The report said only 14 percent expect greater use of AI shopping assistants to be the biggest behavioral change this season, and most are still concentrating their attention on shipping costs, discounts and operational execution.

— Arthur Zaczkiewicz, Footwear News, 24 Aug. 2026

Definition of assistants

Noun

More broadly, struggling to name specific contributions by others even when specifically prompted to do so or remaining vague about developing subordinates are flags that the candidate may engage in toxic patterns.

— Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review, 24 Aug. 2026
Impressive Humility with peers, and something else entirely with subordinates.

— Mary Crossan, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of subordinates

Noun

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
Is her team currently full of yes-men high on her supply?

— Bianca Davino, Refinery29, 7 Oct. 2025

Definition of yes-men

Noun

Many worked as laborers in building projects in an era of Western colonial rule across much of Asia.

— ABC News, ABC News, 25 Aug. 2026
Built in 1610 by Spanish and Indigenous laborers, the church was destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt that drove Spanish colonizers out of the region for 12 years.

— Dan Fellner, AZCentral.com, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of laborers

Noun

At the same time, many of these tech companies, like Microsoft and IBM, have been providing accessible professional certificate programs to workers across the globe in hopes of closing the skills gap.

— Charlotte Hu, Time, 26 Aug. 2026
Chesnot | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images The platform at one point served more than 500,000 workers, also referred to as turkers, according to Amazon.

— Annie Palmer, CNBC, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of workers

Noun

Prosecutors said Asora had Hansen zip-tie MacNeil’s hands before Hansen was restrained.

— Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Aug. 2026
These include a severe or persistent headache, changes in vision such as blurred vision or seeing spots, pain in the upper abdomen, significant swelling of the face or hands, shortness of breath, and nausea or vomiting later in pregnancy.

— Faye Chiu, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 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 27 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of cogs

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

southpaw

Popular in Grammar & Usage

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Commonly Misspelled Words

Popular in Wordplay

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Aug. 28

Why do we say 'break a leg'?

Popular

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Games & Quizzes