cohorts

Noun

cohort (plural cohorts)

1. A group of people supporting the same thing or person.
   • 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.1887 July, George John Romanes, “Mental Differences of Men and Women”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 31
2. 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. (Ancient-Rome, historical) Any division of a Roman legion, normally of about 500 or 600 men (equalling about six centuries).
   • Holonym: legion
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.
   • He ceas’d; and th’ Archangelic Power prepar’d / For ſwift deſcent, with him the Cohort bright / Of watchful Cherubim; […]1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature...
6. A natural group of orders of organisms, less comprehensive than a class.

See all 10 meanings of cohort