comrade

noun

com·​rade ˈkäm-ˌrad How to pronounce comrade (audio)
-rəd,
 especially British  -ˌrād
1
a
: an intimate friend or associate : companion
" … reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned … "Daniel Defoe
b
: a fellow soldier
comrades in battle
2
[from its use as a form of address by communists] : communist
comradeliness noun
comradely adjective
comradeship noun

Did you know?

In Latin, camara or camera denoted a vaulted ceiling or roof. Later, the word simply mean “room, chamber” and was inherited by many European languages with that meaning. In the Spanish, the word became cámara, and a derivative of that was camarada “a group of soldiers quartered in a room” and hence “fellow soldier, companion.” That Spanish word was borrowed into French as camarade and then into Elizabethan English as both camerade and comerade.

Examples of comrade in a Sentence

He enjoys spending time with his old army comrades. the boy, and two others who are known to be his comrades, are wanted for questioning by the police
Recent Examples on the Web
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.
With Assad's ouster in December, Halaby, now 29, returned to his neighborhood of Jobar, on the edge of Damascus, to watch a backhoe unearth the remains of at least eight of his comrades from a mass grave. Lauren Frayer, NPR, 15 Apr. 2025 Another seems to half-pass out, either from exhaustion or shock, while tending to a wounded comrade. Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 11 Apr. 2025 The pair also interviewed several former SEAL comrades for the script. Justin Chang, New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2025 Diehard fans of the show will be even happier to see that comrade Brasso is back and seemingly ready to crack many more stormtrooper helmets. Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 24 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for comrade

Word History

Etymology

Middle French camarade group sleeping in one room, roommate, companion, from Old Spanish camarada, from cámara room, from Late Latin camera, camara — more at chamber

First Known Use

1544, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of comrade was in 1544

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Cite this Entry

“Comrade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comrade. Accessed 26 Apr. 2025.

Kids Definition

comrade

noun
com·​rade ˈkäm-ˌrad How to pronounce comrade (audio)
-rəd
: a close friend or associate
comradely adjective
comradeship noun

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