English

Noun

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, James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Chapter III,

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

   • 1919, Albert Payson Terhune, Lad: A Dog, Chapter VI: 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.

3. (military, historical) Any division of a Roman legion, normally of about 500 men.

   Three cohorts of men were assigned to the region.

   • 1900, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Evelyn Shuckburgh (translator), Letters to Atticus, 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.

   • 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.

   • 1913, Cornelius, article in Catholic Encyclopedia,

     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.

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, Paradise Lost

     With him the cohort bright / Of watchful cherubim.

6. (taxonomy) A natural group of orders of organisms, less comprehensive than a class.
7. A colleague.
8. 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.

(Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• infracohort
• subcohort
• supercohort

See also

• cahoots

Translations