Word of the Day Archive
Saturday October 9, 2004
cohort \KOH-hort\ , noun:
1. A group or band of people.
2. A companion; an associate.
3. A group of people sharing a common statistical factor (as age or membership in a class) in a demographic study.
4. (Roman Antiquity) A body of about 300 to 600 soldiers; the tenth part of a legion.
5. Any group or body of warriors.
Ultimately we could have the know-how to breed these groups of human beings -- called 'clones' after the Greek word for a throng -- to produce a cohort of super-astronauts or dustmen, soldiers or senators, each with identical physical and mental characteristics most suited to do the job they have to do.
-- William Breckon
We, he indicated his cohorts, "are stopping at the Marriot.
-- Hilary Mantel, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
If his own cohorts strayed from the path of honor, he was quick to become the most terrible of enemies.
-- Adrian Frazier, George Moore, 1852-1933
Worldwide, about 7 percent of the relevant age cohort (twenty to twenty-four years) attend postsecondary educational institutions--a statistic that has shown an increase each decade since World War II.
-- Thomas J. Stanley, The Millionaire Next Door
Some of Custer's harsh juvenile humor was shared by his cavalry cohort, who put a premium on toughness.
-- Louise Barnett, Touched by Fire
Cohort derives from Latin cohors, "an enclosure, a yard," hence, "a division of an army camp," hence "a troop, a company," hence, "a division of the Roman army."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for cohort
