collaborate
kuh-LAB-uh-rayt
/kəˈlæb.ə.reɪt/
To work jointly on an activity or project, especially to produce or create something.
Implies shared goals, equal contribution, and co-creation, rather than just helping out or delegating.
The story behind the word. Collaborate comes directly from the Latin collaborare, combining com- (together) with laborare (to work). It is a literal translation of 'working together.' While it has always had positive creative meanings, during World War II, it gained a dark political meaning: cooperating traitorously with an enemy occupying one's country.
Word relationships
- cooperate: Cooperate means to comply with others or work together peacefully, whereas collaborate implies actively co-creating and sharing a creative process.
- compete: Compete means to strive against others to achieve a goal, whereas collaborate means working with them to achieve it.
Commonly confused with
- conspire: Conspire also means to work together, but specifically to plan something illegal, harmful, or underhanded.
Word family
- collaboration (noun): The action of working with someone to produce something.
- collaborative (adjective): Produced or conducted by two or more parties working together.
- collaborator (noun): A person who works jointly on an activity or project.
Collocations
- collaborate on
- collaborate closely
- collaborate with
- collaborative effort
Idioms & expressions
- put our heads together
Example sentences
- "It is rare for two rival producers to collaborate so seamlessly on a single album." An article discussing artistic partnerships in the music industry.
Memory hook
Focus on the word 'labor' inside collaborate. It is about sharing the physical or mental 'labor' with someone else to build something new. Sharing the labor to create.
When not to use
Don't use if one person is doing all the work and the other is just approving it; that's delegation or supervision.
Fun facts
- In the software world, 'collaborative real-time editors' like Google Docs revolutionized the workplace by allowing multiple people to type in the same document simultaneously.
Explore more words
collaboration, interdependent, integrate, synthesize, Interact
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