cohort
9 synonyms for cohort, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — A group of people who share a defining characteristic, especially starting something at the same time, and who are studied or tracked together.
Synonyms
Everyday swaps
Common words most readers know — safe in any writing.
Less common
Still standard English, but they carry more weight.
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
Synonyms by Meaning
1. noun research and education
A group of people who share a defining characteristic, especially starting something at the same time, and who are studied or tracked together.
“The 2024 cohort of trainees was the largest the hospital has taken.”
2. noun informal, often disapproving
A companion or supporter, especially one of a group backing a particular person.
“The mayor arrived with two of his closest cohorts.”
How to use cohort
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
The group sense is standard in research writing; the single-companion sense is informal and some careful writers still object to it.
Etymology
From Latin cohors, cohort- meaning an enclosure or a company of soldiers; a cohort was one tenth of a Roman legion.
Full origin of cohort →