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collaborator

UK/kəˈlæbəɹeɪtə/US/kəˈlæbəɹeɪtɚ/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,836 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: collaborators

A collaborator is somebody who works jointly with another, or who helps an enemy. A close collaborator, wartime collaborators, my collaborator on the book.

The two senses sit uncomfortably in one word, and which one is heard depends entirely on the context: in research it is a colleague, and in an occupied country it was a capital charge.

Definitions of collaborator

  1. 1nouncollaboratorSomebody who works jointly with another, or who helps an enemy.C1

    “The songwriter and her longtime collaborator have written dozens of hits together.”

collaborator is a partner.

Where it comes from

  1. French

    collaborateur

  2. English, today

    collaborator

Borrowed from French collaborateur.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

collaborator in the wild

  • Joseph Darnand was a French far-right political figure, Nazi collaborator and convicted war criminal during the Second World War.

    Joseph Darnand

  • The term collaborator dates to the 19th century and was used in France during the Napoleonic Wars.

    Wartime collaboration

  • Nayman had also worked as a secretary for Akhmatova and a collaborator to her translations.

    Akhmatova's Orphans

  • Prosecution of collaborators began after the liberation of Korea, although the prosecution was interfered with by the South Korean leader Syngman Rhee.

    Korean collaborators with the Empire of Japan

  • The first anti-collaborator legislation was passed in South Korea in 2005: the Special Law to Redeem Pro-Japanese Collaborators' Property.

    Korean collaborators with the Empire of Japan

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.