cognate meaning and examples

Meaning

Cognate can be used both as a noun and an adjective:

• Adjective: Describes words, languages, or things that share the same origin or are related.
• Noun: Refers to a word that has the same origin as another word in a different language.

Grammar and Usage

• As an adjective:

  • "cognate with" → related to or having the same origin as.
  • Example: "Spanish is cognate with Italian."

• As a noun:

  • Refers to a specific word with shared linguistic ancestry.
  • Example: "The English word 'mother' is a cognate of the German word 'Mutter'."

Common Phrases

• cognate languages
• cognate words
• cognate roots

Collocations

• noun + cognate: language cognate, word cognate
• adjective + cognate: closely cognate, linguistically cognate
• verb + cognate: identify cognates, compare cognates

Examples

1. The English word night and the German word Nacht are cognates.
2. Spanish and Portuguese are cognate languages with many similarities.
3. The teacher explained that frater in Latin is cognate with brother in English.
4. Linguists often study cognate words to trace the history of languages.
5. Many English and French words are cognate because of Latin influence.
6. The student learned to recognize cognates when studying Italian.
7. The term "astronomy" in English is cognate with similar words in many European languages.
8. English hundred is cognate with Latin centum.

Synonyms or Related

• related
• akin
• comparable
• parallel
• derivative (in some contexts)