cohort definition | Dictionary.com

Synonyms of cohort

affiliate, ally, colleague, confederate, copartner, fellow, partner, adherent, disciple, henchman, minion, partisan

Browse Nearby Entries

cohort

6 dictionary results for: cohort

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

co·hort

[koh-hawrt] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	a group or company: She has a cohort of admirers.

2.	a companion or associate.

3.	one of the ten divisions in an ancient Roman legion, numbering from 300 to 600 soldiers.

4.	any group of soldiers or warriors.

5.	an accomplice; abettor: He got off with probation, but his cohorts got ten years apiece.

6.	a group of persons sharing a particular statistical or demographic characteristic: the cohort of all children born in 1980.

7.	Biology. an individual in a population of the same species.

[Origin: 1475–85; < MF cohorte < L cohort- (s. of cohors) farmyard, armed force (orig. from a particular place or camp), cohort, retinue, equiv. to co- co- + hort- (akin to hortus garden); r. late ME cohors < L nom. sing.

]

—Synonyms 2. friend, comrade, fellow, chum, pal, buddy.

—Usage note A cohort was originally one of the ten divisions of a legion in the Roman army, containing from 300 to 600 men. The most common use of cohort today is in the sense “group” or “company”: A cohort of hangers-on followed the singer down the corridor. In a development emphasizing the idea of companionship, cohort has also come to mean a single companion, associate, or the like: The senator strode into the room followed by his faithful cohort, his son-in-law.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

co·hort (kō'hôrt') Pronunciation Key
n.

A group or band of people.
A companion or associate.
A generational group as defined in demographics, statistics, or market research: "The cohort of people aged 30 to 39 . . . were more conservative" (American Demographics).
1. One of the 10 divisions of a Roman legion, consisting of 300 to 600 men.
2. A group of soldiers.

[Middle English, from Old French cohorte, from Latin cohors, cohort-; see gher-¹ in Indo-European roots.]

Usage Note: In Caesar's Gallic War a cohort was a unit of soldiers. There were 6 centuries (100 men) to a cohort, 10 cohorts to a legion (therefore 6,000 men). A century, then, would correspond to a company, a cohort to a battalion, and a legion to a regiment. Because of the word's history, some critics insist that cohort should be used only to refer to a group of people and never to an individual. In recent years, however, the use of cohort to refer to an individual rather than a group has become very common and is now in fact the dominant usage. Seventy-one percent of the Usage Panel accepts the sentence The cashiered dictator and his cohorts have all written their memoirs, while only 43 percent accepts The gangster walked into the room surrounded by his cohort. · Perhaps because of its original military meaning and paramilitary associations, cohort usually has a somewhat negative connotation, and therefore critics of the President rather than his supporters might use a phrase like the President and his cohorts.

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
cohort

1422, from L. cohortem, acc. of cohors "enclosure," meaning extended to "infantry company" in Roman army (a tenth part of a legion) through notion of "enclosed group, retinue," from com- "with" + root akin to hortus "garden," from PIE *ghr-ti-, from base *gher- "to grasp, enclose" (see yard (1)). Sense of "accomplice" is first recorded 1952, Amer.Eng.

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

cohort
noun
1.	a company of companions or supporters
2.	a band of warriors (originally a unit of a Roman Legion)
3.	a group of people having approximately the same age [syn: age group]