Friend vs. Fellow — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Urooj Arif — Updated on April 6, 2024
A friend is someone with whom one shares a bond of mutual affection, while a fellow is a peer or an equal in a specific context.
Difference Between Friend and Fellow
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Friendship involves a personal relationship based on mutual affection and shared experiences. Friends often support and care for each other, sharing both good times and challenges. This connection can develop over time and doesn’t necessarily require common professional or academic interests. On the other hand, a fellow is often used to describe a person who shares a particular activity, condition, or position with someone else, without implying a close personal relationship.
While friends might be chosen based on shared interests, values, or emotional connections, fellows are often designated based on their role or status in a specific context, such as fellow students or fellows at a research institute. This distinction highlights the different bases for these relationships.
Another key difference lies in the expectations and obligations of the relationship. Friendships usually involve mutual support and companionship, with friends often going out of their way to help each other. In contrast, fellowships may not carry the same expectations of personal support, focusing instead on shared goals or tasks.
The term "friend" can also convey a sense of intimacy and trust that is not inherently present in the term "fellow." While fellows can become friends, being a fellow does not automatically imply a personal or emotional connection.
Comparison Chart
Basis of Relationship
Mutual affection and personal connection.
Common activity, condition, or professional status.
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Emotional Connection
Often involves a deep emotional bond.
Emotional connection is not a requirement.
Expectations
Mutual support, companionship, and sometimes assistance.
Shared goals or tasks, with less emphasis on personal support.
Context of Use
Can exist in any context, not limited to specific activities.
Often used in specific contexts, such as academia or professional fields.
Potential for Personal Bond
High, as the relationship is based on personal affection.
Lower, unless the professional or academic relationship develops into a personal friendship.
Compare with Definitions
Friend
One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement.
Friends of the Earth supports environmental causes.
Fellow
A man who is the lover of a girl or young woman;
If I'd known he was her boyfriend I wouldn't have asked
Friend
A person who provides assistance; a supporter.
The charity thanks its friends and donors.
Fellow
A member of a group of people who have shared interests, activities, or status.
He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Friend
A contact on a social media platform.
I just added you as a friend on Facebook.
Fellow
A student or scholar who receives a fellowship for academic work.
She was a research fellow at the university.
Friend
A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
Fellow
A companion; someone who is not an enemy.
In the end, we realized we were fellows in our goals.
Friend
A person whom one knows; an acquaintance.
Fellow
Used to describe someone who is the same in some way, or in the same condition.
We're fellow travelers on this journey.
Friend
A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
Fellow
A fellow is a broad concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Friend
One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement
Friends of the clean air movement.
Fellow
A man or boy.
Friend
Friend A member of the Society of Friends; a Quaker.
Fellow
(Informal) A boyfriend.
Friend
(Informal) To add (someone) as a friend on a social networking website.
Fellow
A comrade or associate.
Friend
(Archaic) To befriend.
Fellow
A person of equal rank, position, or background; a peer.
Friend
A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection.
John and I have been friends ever since we were roommates at college.
Trust is important between friends.
I used to find it hard to make friends when I was shy.
We became friends in the war and remain friends to this day.
We were friends with some girls from the other school and stayed friends with them.
Fellow
One of a pair; a mate
Found the lost shoe and its fellow.
Friend
An associate who provides assistance.
The Automobile Association is every motorist's friend.
The police is every law-abiding citizen's friend.
Fellow
A member of a learned society or professional organization.
Friend
A person with whom one is vaguely or indirectly acquainted.
A friend of a friend;
I added him as a friend on Facebook, but I hardly know
Fellow
A graduate student appointed to a position granting financial aid and providing for further study.
Friend
A person who backs or supports something.
I’m not a friend of cheap wine.
Fellow
A physician who enters a training program in a medical specialty after completing residency, usually in a hospital or academic setting.
Friend
(informal) An object or idea that can be used for good.
Fruit is your friend.
Fellow
An incorporated senior member of certain colleges and universities.
Friend
Used as a form of address when warning someone.
You’d better watch it, friend.
Fellow
A member of the governing body of certain colleges and universities.
Friend
(object-oriented programming) A function or class granted special access to the private and protected members of another class.
Fellow
(Archaic) A man or boy held in low regard.
Friend
(climbing) A spring-loaded camming device.
Fellow
Being of the same kind, group, occupation, society, or locality; having in common certain characteristics or interests
Fellow workers.
Friend
(euphemistic) A lover; a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Fellow
A companion; a comrade.
Friend
To act as a friend to, to befriend; to be friendly to, to help.
Fellow
An animal which is a member of a breed or species, or a flock, herd, etc.
Friend
(transitive) To add (a person) to a list of friends on a social networking site; to officially designate (someone) as a friend.
Fellow
An object which is associated with another object; especially, as part of a set.
Friend
One who entertains for another such sentiments of esteem, respect, and affection that he seeks his society and welfare; a wellwisher; an intimate associate; sometimes, an attendant.
Want gives to know the flatterer from the friend.
A friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
Fellow
A person or thing comparable in characteristics with another person or thing; especially, as belonging to the same class or group.
My fellow Americans
Rebecca and her fellow workers are to go on strike.
Friend
One not inimical or hostile; one not a foe or enemy; also, one of the same nation, party, kin, etc., whose friendly feelings may be assumed. The word is some times used as a term of friendly address.
Friend, how camest thou in hither?
Fellow
(chiefly in the negative) A person with abilities, achievements, skills, etc., equal to those of another person; a thing with characteristics, worth, etc., equal to those of another thing.
To be without fellow
To have no fellows
Friend
One who looks propitiously on a cause, an institution, a project, and the like; a favorer; a promoter; as, a friend to commerce, to poetry, to an institution.
Fellow
One in the same condition, or situation of need, as another.
Friend
One of a religious sect characterized by disuse of outward rites and an ordained ministry, by simplicity of dress and speech, and esp. by opposition to war and a desire to live at peace with all men. They are popularly called Quakers.
America was first visited by Friends in 1656.
Fellow
Often in the form Fellow: academic senses.
Friend
To act as the friend of; to favor; to countenance; to befriend.
Fortune friends the bold.
Fellow
Originally, one of a group of academics who make up a college or similar educational institution; now, a senior member of a college or similar educational institution involved in teaching, research, and management of the institution.
Friend
A person you know well and regard with affection and trust;
He was my best friend at the university
Fellow
An honorary title bestowed by a college or university upon a distinguished person (often an alumna or alumnus).
Friend
An associate who provides assistance;
He's a good ally in fight
They were friends of the workers
Fellow
A (senior) member of a learned or professional society.
A Fellow of the Royal Society
Friend
A person with whom you are acquainted;
I have trouble remembering the names of all my acquaintances
We are friends of the family
Fellow
A scholar appointed to a fellowship, that is, a paid academic position held for a certain period which usually requires the scholar to conduct research.
Friend
A person who backs a politician or a team etc.;
All their supporters came out for the game
They are friends of the library
Fellow
A physician undergoing a fellowship (supervised subspecialty medical training) after having completed a residency (specialty training program).
Friend
A member of the Religious Society of Friends founded by George Fox (the Friends have never called themselves Quakers)
Fellow
(US) A member of a college or university who manages its business interests.
Fellow
(US) A senior researcher or technician in a corporation, especially one engaged in research and development.
Fellow
(informal) A male person; a bloke, a chap, a guy, a man; also, preceded by a modifying word, sometimes with a sense of mild reproach: used as a familiar term of address to a man.
My dear fellow
Old fellow
Fellow
(rare) Usually qualified by an adjective or used in the plural: an individual or person regardless of gender.
Fellow
An animal or object.
Fellow
(archaic)
Fellow
One of a pair of things suited to each other or used together; a counterpart, a mate.
Fellow
(Australian Aboriginal) fella
Fellow
(obsolete)
Fellow
A colleague or partner.
Fellow
A close companion or friend; also, a companion or friend whom one eats or drinks with.
Fellow
Followed by of: one who participates in an activity; a participant.
Fellow
A man without good breeding or of lower social status; a common or ignoble man; also, used as a polite term of address to such a person.
Fellow
A person's servant or slave.
Fellow
(derogatory) A worthless person; a churl, a knave; also, used as a term of address to a person regarded as such.
Fellow
Synonym of schoolmate
Fellow
A black man.
Fellow
(transitive)
Fellow
(archaic) To address (someone) as "fellow", especially in an insulting manner (see noun sense 10.6).
Fellow
To equal (someone or something); also, to cause or find someone or something to be equal to (some other person or thing).
Fellow
(obsolete)
Fellow
Followed by with: to associate or join with a person or thing in companionship or a partnership.
Fellow
A companion; a comrade; an associate; a partner; a sharer.
The fellows of his crime.
We are fellows still,Serving alike in sorrow.
That enormous engine was flanked by two fellows almost of equal magnitude.
Fellow
A man without good breeding or worth; an ignoble or mean man.
Worth makes the man, and want of it, the fellow.
Fellow
An equal in power, rank, character, etc.
It is impossible that ever RomeShould breed thy fellow.
Fellow
One of a pair, or of two things used together or suited to each other; a mate; the male.
When they be but heifers of one year, . . . they are let go to the fellow and breed.
This was my glove; here is the fellow of it.
Fellow
A person; an individual.
She seemed to be a good sort of fellow.
Fellow
In the English universities, a scholar who is appointed to a foundation called a fellowship, which gives a title to certain perquisites and privileges.
Fellow
In an American college or university, a member of the corporation which manages its business interests; also, a graduate appointed to a fellowship, who receives the income of the foundation.
Fellow
A member of a literary or scientific society; as, a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Were the great duke himself here, and would lift upMy head to fellow pomp amongst his nobles.
Fellow
To suit with; to pair with; to match.
Fellow
A boy or man;
That chap is your host
There's a fellow at the door
He's a likable cuss
Fellow
A person who is frequently in the company of another;
Drinking companions
Comrades in arms
Fellow
A person who is member of your class or profession;
The surgeon consulted his colleagues
He sent e-mail to his fellow hackers
Fellow
An informal form of address for a man;
Say, fellow, what are you doing?
Hey buster, what's up?
Common Curiosities
Can a fellow be a friend?
Yes, a fellow can become a friend if a personal bond develops.
Is fellowship the same as friendship?
No, fellowship often refers to shared professional or academic status, while friendship is based on personal affection.
Can a working relationship evolve into a friendship?
Yes, colleagues or fellows in a professional setting can develop personal bonds and become friends over time.
Can the term "fellow" refer to women?
Yes, though historically more common for men, "fellow" can refer to individuals of any gender in contemporary contexts.
Is it common to use "fellow" in informal settings?
Less so; "fellow" is more formal and often used in academic, professional, or specific social contexts.
Are all classmates considered fellows?
In a broad sense, yes, because they share the status of being students in the same class.
Are there cultural differences in how "friends" and "fellows" are perceived?
Yes, cultural contexts can influence the expectations and perceptions of these relationships, including how easily acquaintances are considered friends.
Is there a difference in how "fellow" is used in British and American English?
Usage is similar, but there may be slight differences in formality and context, with British English sometimes using "fellow" in more traditional or formal senses.
Can someone have friends without fellows?
Yes, one can have friends without sharing a specific status or activity that makes someone a fellow.
How do children define friends compared to adults?
Children may focus more on playmates and classmates as friends, valuing shared activities, while adults often consider emotional support and mutual understanding.
How does one distinguish between a friend and a fellow in conversation?
Context clues and the nature of the relationship discussed help distinguish them; "friend" implies personal closeness, while "fellow" suggests a shared status or activity.
Can animals be considered friends?
Yes, in a broad sense, animals can form bonds with humans that are characterized by affection and companionship, fitting some definitions of friendship.
How do social media platforms affect the concept of "friend"?
Social media broadens the term to include online connections, which may not always meet the traditional criteria of personal affection and trust.
Does the depth of a friendship affect its definition?
While depth varies, the definition of friendship remains centered on mutual affection and personal connection.
Can friendships exist entirely online?
Yes, online friendships can form based on shared interests and emotional support, even without meeting in person.
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Written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
