company

SayKUM-puh-nee/ˈkʌmpəni//ˈkʌmp(ə)ni/

12 meanings of company

1
nouncountable or uncountable
A business that makes or sells goods or provides services, especially one registered as a legal entity.
The company manufactures auto parts for several major brands.
After its sales doubled, the company hired fifty new workers and opened a second factory.
UsageYou work for a company, join one, or start and run one.
Similarbusiness, firm, corporation, enterprise, concern
Note
The everyday commercial word, wide enough for a corner shop or a multinational, whether incorporated or not.
2
being togethernoununcountable
The comfort or pleasure of having others around; companionship.
After his wife passed, he missed her company terribly.
The children kept their grandmother company all afternoon.
UsageSet phrases: keep someone company, for company, good company.
Similarcompanionship, presence, fellowship
Oppositesolitude, loneliness
Note
Here the word names a quality rather than people, so it is judged like one: good company, dull company, first-rate company. The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) praises a friend in exactly those terms. Possessive frames such as your company or her company mean the pleasure of one particular person's presence.
3
visitorsnoununcountable
People who are visiting, or those one spends social time with.
They weren't expecting company, so the house was a mess.
She always cooks something special when company comes by.
UsageCommon patterns for guests: have company, expecting company, company is coming.
Similarguests, visitors
Note
Without an article it means guests, as in I have company coming. With the, it names a gathering already assembled. In Charles Johnstone's The Reverie (1762) the company breaks up early. In Ben Travers's A Cuckoo in the Nest (1922), two men favor the company with a chanty. Charles Wesley's 1742 hymn uses it for traveling companions gone on ahead.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
Charles Johnstone wrote The Reverie, first published in 1762. en.wikipedia.org
In The Reverie, the company breaks up earlier than usual. en.wiktionary.org
Ben Travers wrote the novel A Cuckoo in the Nest, first published in 1922. en.wikipedia.org
Two men, Mr. Love and the driver, favour the company with a chanty. en.wiktionary.org
Charles Wesley wrote the hymn Wrestling Jacob, also known as Come, O thou Traveller unknown, published in a collection dated 1742. methodist.org.uk
The hymn uses company for companions who have gone ahead. divinity.duke.edu
4
nouncountable or uncountable
A group of people gathered or associated together, often for a shared purpose.
A company of actors toured the country performing the play.
The travelers formed a company to cross the desert together.
UsageOften a company of + people: a company of actors; also a theater company.
Similargroup, band, troupe, party, body
Note
Shared work and shared fellowship meet in this sense. Middle English companye meant both "a team" and "companionship," from Old French compaignie, built on compaignon, the word behind companion. A company of actors keeps that double meaning: people bound by a common task who also travel and live alongside one another. The business sense narrows the idea to people joined together to run a business.
5
army unitnouncountable or uncountable
A military unit of roughly sixty to a hundred and twenty soldiers, made up of two or three platoons within a battalion.
The captain ordered the company to hold the ridge until dawn.
Two companies were deployed to reinforce the battalion.
UsageWith a letter as its name it takes a capital: Company C.
Note
Armies often tell these units apart by letter, and the letter can follow the word as a capitalized name: the boys in Company C. Outside the name it is an ordinary count noun (two companies, the leading company), usually under a captain. Harold Bindloss's The Dust of Conflict (1907) shows it in battle: a "shattered leading company" flings itself into the houses under an enfilading volley.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
Lettered names occur, but their order varies: the British Army uses A Company, B Company and C Company. army.mod.uk
A company is usually commanded by a captain. army.mil
Harold Bindloss wrote The Dust of Conflict. gutenberg.ca
The Dust of Conflict was first published in 1907. gutenberg.ca
The novel's narration contains the exact phrase shattered leading company and describes its entering houses when met by an enfilading volley. gutenberg.ca

Less common meanings

6
fire crewnouncountable or uncountable
A team of firefighters together with their vehicles and equipment.
The company stretched a hose line up to the second floor.
Two companies responded to the multi-alarm blaze downtown.
Similarcrew, unit
Note
Fire services borrowed the habit of counting in units, so a fire's size is often told by how many companies it took (six companies to put out the fire). Each company is a crew tied to its apparatus, such as an engine or a ladder truck. It is the basic working unit at a blaze, not a business.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
Fire services borrowed military terminology for their organizational units. planning.org
An engine or ladder company comprises apparatus and its personnel. govinfo.gov
Company denotes a basic firefighting unit. en.wikipedia.org
7
ship crewnouncountable or uncountable
The whole crew of a ship, taken together.
The ship's company numbered nearly three hundred sailors.
The captain addressed the company before the long voyage began.
UsageUsually ship's company.
Similarcrew, complement
Note
Sailors usually say ship's company. The phrase gathers officers and crew alike into one body, meaning all hands borne on the vessel's books. That makes it wider than crew, which can mean the sailors as opposed to their officers. A ship's company is mustered, addressed or numbered as a whole.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
A ship's company includes its officers and enlisted crew. med.navy.mil
The collective personnel are recorded in the ship's books. dev.gutenberg.org
Crew can designate enlisted sailors separately from officers. med.navy.mil
8
animal groupnouncountable or uncountable
A small group of birds or animals gathered together.
A company of widgeon settled on the lake at sunset.
The hunters spotted a company of partridges in the open field.
Similarflock, covey
9
spy agencynouncolloquialcountable or uncountable
An intelligence service; a spy agency, especially as informally referred to by those who work inside it.
Old hands at the Company rarely discussed their assignments.
She was recruited by the Company straight out of college.
UsageUsually capitalized: the Company; in formal writing, name the agency.
Note
Its best-known bearer is the CIA, whose officers speak of retiring from the company after decades of service. The word works because it sounds like any employer's name, and that blandness suits a secretive agency.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
CIA officers refer to their agency as the company. cia.gov
10
verbarchaictransitive
To keep company with someone, either by going along with them or by spending time with them.
A faithful servant companied him throughout his long exile.
it was with a distinctly fallen countenance that his father hearkened to his mother's parenthetical request to “’bide hyar an’ company leetle Moses whilst I be a-milkin’ the cow.”
1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country
Note
The verb English once used where it now says accompany. William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526 calls it unlawful for a Jew to "company" an alien. The verb lingered in rural speech: in Mary Noailles Murfree's 1891 dialogue, a mother asks her husband to "company leetle Moses" while she milks.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Company historically meant accompany or keep company with. en.wiktionary.org
William Tyndale's complete New Testament was first printed in 1526. gutenberg.org
Tyndale's translation uses company in the statement about a Jew associating with an alien. en.wiktionary.org
Mary Noailles Murfree wrote the work containing the dialogue, under the name Charles Egbert Craddock. en.wikipedia.org
The dialogue appears in In the "Stranger People's" Country, first published in 1891. gutenberg.org
11
verbobsoleteintransitive
To keep others company in a cheerful, lively way.
Note
Edmund Spenser's Mother Hubberds Tale (1591) lists it among a courtier's arts: "to laugh, to lie, To face, to forge, to scoffe, to companie." In that list, being merry company sounds less like a virtue than a flatterer's skill.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Edmund Spenser wrote Mother Hubberds Tale, published in 1591. darkwing.uoregon.edu
The poem gives the quoted list of skills required at court, including to companie. darkwing.uoregon.edu
12
verbobsoleteintransitive
To engage in sexual intercourse, especially with another person.
Note
An old polite cover for sex, built the way many euphemisms are: being with someone stands in for the act. Like the plain verb meaning "associate," it takes with, as in Joseph Hall's phrase "companying with Infidels" from before 1656. Only context separates the two. In older moral and legal writing, read the surrounding words before deciding which is meant.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
Company formerly meant to have sexual intercourse. en.wiktionary.org
The verb meaning associate takes with. en.wiktionary.org
Joseph Hall used the exact phrase companying with Infidels before 1656. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

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Origin

Old French compaignie ("companionship"), possibly from an unattested Late Latin *compania, became Middle English companye ("a team, companionship"). The Old French word is made of compaignon ("companion") and the suffix -ie. It pushed aside native Old English words such as werod and hired.