# collaborate

Pronunciation: say "kuh-LAB-uh-rayt" /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/

## Verb

1. To work jointly with others in pursuit of a common goal.
   - Simple: To work together with other people to reach a shared goal.
   - _Engineers and designers must collaborate to bring a new product to market._
   - _The two firms collaborated on the bridge design last year._
2. To willingly cooperate with an enemy occupying force in one's own country, an act regarded as treason.
   - Simple: To help an enemy force that has taken control of your country, working against your own people.
   - _Merchants who collaborate with an occupying regime often profit while their neighbors suffer._
   - _He was tried after the war for having collaborated with the enemy._

## Origin

A back-formation from 'collaborator', which comes from French 'collaborateur'; it may also have been modeled on French 'collaborer' or taken directly from Late Latin 'collabōrātus', the past participle of 'collabōrāre'. It displaced the native Old English 'efnwyrċan'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/collaborate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).