cohort

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cohort

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From Latin cohors (stem cohort-); borrowed into Old English as coorta, but reintroduced into Middle English as cōhort and chōors via Old French cohorte. Doublet of court.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkəʊ.hɔː(ɹ)t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkoʊ̯.hɔɹt/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -əʊhɔː(ɹ)t, -oʊhɔɹt
• Hyphenation: co‧hort

cohort (plural cohorts)

1. A group of people supporting the same thing or person.
   • 1887 July, George John Romanes, “Mental Differences of Men and Women”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 31:

     Coyness and caprice have in consequence become a heritage of the sex, together with a cohort of allied weaknesses and petty deceits, that men have come to think venial, and even amiable, in women, but which they would not tolerate among themselves.

   • 1916 December 29, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 154:

     A sin, an instant of rebellious pride of the intellect, made Lucifer and a third part of the cohorts of angels fall from their glory.

   • 1919, Albert Payson Terhune, chapter VI, in Lad: A Dog, Lost!:

     A lost dog? — Yes. No succoring cohort surges to the relief. A gang of boys, perhaps, may give chase, but assuredly not in kindness.

2. (statistics) A demographic grouping of people, especially those in a defined age group, or having a common characteristic.

   The 18–24 cohort shows a sharp increase in automobile fatalities over the proximate age groupings.

   • 2002, Merry White, Perfectly Japanese: Making Families in an Era of Upheaval, page 169:

     The elderly are market segments, by generations or microgenerations within age cohorts or by historical experience as personality types.

   • 2023 May 10, Terry Ward, “Zillennials: The newest micro-generation has a name”, in CNN‎:

     “Zillennials refer to a small cohort born between the early 1990s and the early 2000s,” said Deborah Carr, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Innovation in Social Science at Boston University. “They’re on the cusp of Gen Z and millennial, thus the mash-up label of zillennial.”

   • 2024 August 20, Madeline Holcombe, “There is a link between the meat you eat and a chronic disease, according to new research”, in CNN‎:

     Regularly eating red and processed meats in particular is associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, according to an analysis of data from 31 study cohorts published Tuesday in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

3. (historical, Ancient Rome, military) Any division of a Roman legion, normally of about 500 or 600 men (equalling about six centuries).

   Holonym: legion

   Meronyms: maniple, century

   Three cohorts of men were assigned to the region.

   • 1900, Marcus Tullius Cicero, translated by Evelyn Shuckburgh, Letters to Atticus, section 5.20:

     But he lost the whole of his first cohort and the centurion of the first line, a man of high rank in his own class, Asinius Dento, and the other centurions of the same cohort, as well as a military tribune, Sext. Lucilius, son of T. Gavius Caepio, a man of wealth, and high position.

   • 1908, F. Bechtel, “Cornelius”, in Charles G Herbermann, Edward A Pace, Condé B Pallen, Thomas J Shahan, John J Wynne, editors, The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, volume IV (Cland–Diocesan), New York, N.Y.: Robert Appleton Company, →OCLC, page 375, column 2:

     The cohort in which he was centurion was probably the Cohors II Italica civium Romanorum, which a recently discovered inscription proves to have been stationed in Syria before a. d. 69.

   • 1910, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Last of the Legions:

     But here it is as clear as words can make it: 'Bring every man of the Legions by forced marches to the help of the Empire. Leave not a cohort in Britain.' These are my orders.

4. An accomplice; abettor; associate.

   He was able to plea down his sentence by revealing the names of three of his cohorts, as well as the source of the information.

5. Any band or body of warriors.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC, signature , verso, lines 126–128:

     He ceas’d; and th’ Archangelic Power prepar’d / For ſwift deſcent, with him the Cohort bright / Of watchful Cherubim;

7. (taxonomy) A natural group of orders of organisms, less comprehensive than a class.
8. A colleague.
9. A set of individuals in a program, especially when compared to previous sets of individuals within the same program.

   The students in my cohort for my organic chemistry class this year are not up to snuff. Last year's cohort scored much higher averages on the mid-term.

   • 2023 March 8, Neil Robertson, “Tackling the skills shortage”, in RAIL, number 978, page 33:

     Apprenticeship programmes supply the industry with an ongoing cohort of qualified talent. It is much cheaper to train new people than to pay inflated wages to attract existing talent. Apprenticeships are also a useful way of teaching the practical, hands-on skills that the modern railway needs.

cohort (third-person singular simple present cohorts, present participle cohorting, simple past and past participle cohorted)

1. To associate with such a group.

• cahoots

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “cohort”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• chroot, rootch, trocho-

Borrowed from Latin cohors. Doublet of cort.

• IPA^(key): (Central)
• IPA^(key): (Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencia)

cohort f (plural cohorts)

1. cohort (group of people supporting the same thing)
2. cohort (demographic grouping of people)
3. cohort (division of a Roman legion)

• “cohort”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies , 2007 April