fellow
noun
Simple meaning
An animal which is a member of a breed or species, or a flock.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fehlohSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɛloʊ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
chiefly in the plural
An animal which is a member of a breed or species, or a flock, herd, etc.
chiefly in the pluralalso figuratively
A companion; a comrade.
by extensionoften humorous or ironic
An animal or object.
chiefly in the plural
An object which is associated with another object; especially, as part of a set.
chiefly in the negative
A person with abilities, achievements, skills, etc., equal to those of another person; a thing with characteristics, worth, etc., equal to those of another thing.
also attributively
A person or thing comparable in characteristics with another person or thing; especially, as belonging to the same class or group.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An animal which is a member of a breed or species, or a flock, herd, etc.
Used this way, fellow is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a scientific use: it names something precisely within a field of study, so it appears in research and teaching more than in conversation.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Science
- Academic writing
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- confrere , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use fellow
- “He was elected a fellow of the American Physiological Association.”noun
- “Say, fellow, what are you doing?”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An association of people who share common beliefs or activities.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
One of the persons who compose a social group (especially individuals who have joined and participate in a group organization).
A communist sympathizer (but not a member of the Communist Party).
An associate that one works with.
A communist sympathizer (but not a member of the Communist Party).
Sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish).
An acquaintance that you go to school with.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.