cooperate

See also: coöperate and co-operate

English

Alternative forms

• co-operate (UK), coöperate (uncommon)

Etymology

Originated 1595–1605 from Late Latin cooperatus (“work with”). See co- + operate. Displaced native Old English efnwyrċan.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəʊˈɒp.ə.ɹeɪt/, /kuˈɒp.ə.ɹeɪt/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /koʊˈɑ.pəˌɹeɪt/, /kuˈɑ.pəˌɹeɪt/

  • Audio

    (file)

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /kəʉˈɔp.ə.ɹæɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɒpəɹeɪt

Verb

cooperate (third-person singular simple present cooperates, present participle cooperating, simple past and past participle cooperated)

1. (intransitive) To work or act together, especially for a common purpose or benefit.
   • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     In polling by the Pew Research Center in November 2008, fully half the respondents thought the two parties would cooperate more in the coming year, versus only 36 percent who thought the climate would grow more adversarial.

2. (intransitive) To allow for mutual unobstructed action
3. (intransitive) To function in harmony, side by side
4. (intransitive) To engage in economic cooperation.

Usage notes

• The usual pronunciation of 'oo' is /uː/ or /ʊ/. The dieresis in the spelling coöperate – now obsolete outside the pages of The New Yorker – was intended to emphasize that the second o begins a separate syllable.
• The solid form is much more common than the hyphenated form in both British and American corpora. The hyphenated form used to be more common in British usage, but is no more.

Synonyms

• coact
• coadjute
• co-op
• make common cause
• play ball

 

Related terms

• cooperation (noun)
• cooperative (adjective; noun)
• cooperator (agent noun)

Translations

to work together

• Arabic: تَعَاوَنَ (taʕāwana)
• Armenian: համագործակցել (hy) (hamagorcakcʻel)
• Belarusian: супрацо́ўнічаць impf (supracóŭničacʹ)
• Bulgarian: сътру́днича (bg) impf (sǎtrúdniča)
• Catalan: cooperar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 合作 (zh) (hézuò), 協力／协力 (zh) (xiélì), 一力 (zh) (yīlì)

• Czech: spolupracovat (cs) impf
• Danish: samarbejde (da)
• Dutch: samenwerken (nl)
• Esperanto: kunlabori, kunagi
• Finnish: tehdä yhteistyötä, toimia yhteistyössä
• French: coopérer (fr), collaborer (fr)
• Galician: cooperar (gl)
• German: zusammenarbeiten (de), kooperieren (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: συμπράσσω (sumprássō)

• Hebrew: לשתף פעולה (leshatef pe'ula)
• Hindi: सहयोग करना (sahyog karnā)
• Hungarian: együttműködik (hu), kooperál (hu)
• Icelandic: vinna saman
• Italian: cooperare (it), collaborare (it)
• Japanese: 協力する (ja) (きょうりょくする, kyōryoku suru)
• Korean: 협력하다 (ko) (hyeomnyeokhada)
• Lao: ຮ່ວມໝູ່ (hūam mū)
• Lithuanian: bendradarbiauti (lt)
• Luxembourgish: cooperéieren
• Macedonian: соработува impf (sorabotuva)
• Malay: bekerjasama
• Norwegian: samarbeide (no)
• Old English: efnwyrċan
• Polish: współpracować (pl) impf
• Portuguese: cooperar (pt), colaborar (pt)
• Quechua: yanapay
• Romanian: coopera (ro)
• Russian: сотру́дничать (ru) impf (sotrúdničatʹ), коопери́ровать (ru) impf (kooperírovatʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сарађивати impf, сурађивати impf

  Roman: sarađivati (sh) impf, surađivati impf

• Slovak: spolupracovať impf
• Slovene: sodelovati impf
• Spanish: cooperar (es)
• Swedish: samarbeta (sv), samverka (sv)
• Telugu: సహకరించు (te) (sahakariñcu)
• Thai: ร่วมมือ (th) (rûuam-mʉʉ)
• Ukrainian: співпрацюва́ти impf (spivpracjuváty)
• Vietnamese: cộng tác (vi)
• Welsh: cydweithio (cy)

function in harmony, side by side

• Danish: samspille
• German: harmonieren (de), zusammenspielen (de)
• Swedish: samspela

Further reading

• “cooperate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “cooperate”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• “cooperate”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• "cooperate" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

cooperate

1. inflection of cooperare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

cooperate f pl

1. feminine plural of cooperato

Latin

Participle

cooperāte

1. vocative masculine singular of cooperātus

Spanish

Verb

cooperate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of cooperar combined with te