cognate

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   related in origin, nature, or character

   The proposed reform was intended to address corruption and cognate abuses of power.

2. 2
   noun

   a word that shares a common ancestral form with another word

   The English word night is a cognate of German Nacht.

3. 3
   adj

   of words or languages, descended from the same ancestral language or form

   French and Spanish are cognate languages descended from Latin.

Borrowed from Latin cognatus, 'related by blood,' formed from con-, 'together,' and natus, 'born,' the past participle of nasci, 'to be born.' The linguistic sense compares words as members of the same historical family.

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