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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

associate.

Joined with another or others and having lower status.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/əˈsəʊʃi.ət/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsəʊsi.ət/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsoʊʃi.ət/General-American/əˈsoʊsi.ət/General-American
  1. Joined with another or others and having lower status.

    not-comparable
    The associate editor is someone who has some experience in editing but not sufficient experience to qualify for a senior post.
  2. Having partial status or privileges.

    not-comparable
    He is an associate member of the club.
  3. Following or accompanying; concomitant.

    not-comparable
  4. Connected by habit or sympathy.

    dated · not-comparable
    associate motions
Where this word comes from

From Middle English associat(e) (used participially as well as adjectively up to Early Modern English), from Latin associātus, the perfect passive participle of associō (“to join, unite”), from ad- + sociō, from socius (“shared, common, kindred”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix).

noun/əˈsəʊʃi.ət/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsəʊsi.ət/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsoʊʃi.ət/General-American/əˈsoʊsi.ət/General-American
  1. A person united with another or others in an act, enterprise, or business; a partner or employee.

    Allow me to introduce my business associates, Alice and Bob, who are senior VPs for ops and strategy, respectively.
    Associates must wash hands before returning to work
  2. Somebody with whom one works, coworker, colleague.

  3. A companion; a comrade.

  4. One that habitually accompanies or is associated with another; an attendant circumstance.

  5. A member of an institution or society who is granted only partial status or privileges.

  6. One of a pair of elements of an integral domain (or a ring) such that the two elements are divisible by each other (or, equivalently, such that each one can be expressed as the product of the other with a unit).

  7. A casual friend, acquaintance

Where this word comes from

From the substantivization of the above adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

verb/əˈsəʊʃieɪt/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsəʊsieɪt/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsoʊʃieɪt/General-American/əˈsoʊsieɪt/General-American
  1. To join in or form a league, union, or association.

    intransitive
  2. To spend time socially; keep company.

    intransitive
    She associates with her coworkers on weekends.
    Before the race he associated only with other skiers.
  3. To join as a partner, ally, or friend.

    transitive
    He associated his name with many environmental causes.
  4. To connect or join together; combine.

    transitive
    particles of gold associated with other substances
  5. To connect evidentially, or in the mind or imagination.

    transitive
  6. To endorse.

    reflexive
    She refused to associate herself with the petition.
  7. To be associative.

  8. To accompany; to be in the company of.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English associat(e) (“associated, allied”) (the verb *associaten is not found in Middle English writings and only attested at a later period), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Doublet of associe.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.