What does collide mean?
To collide is to strike against something else with force, most commonly said of vehicles, ships, aircraft, or other moving bodies that crash into one another. The word also carries an important figurative sense: when people, opinions, or ambitions collide, they come into direct and usually heated conflict, as when rival visions for a project collide in a boardroom. This dual character makes collide unusually versatile, bridging the physical world of impact and the social world of disagreement. It is standard in both British and American English, appears frequently in news reports of accidents, and lends itself to vivid idioms such as "when worlds collide." Its noun form, collision, is equally common and useful, appearing in everyday phrases like "a head-on collision." Because it conveys sudden, forceful contact between two things, collide is a precise and expressive alternative to blunter words like crash or hit, and a valuable addition to any writer's vocabulary.
verb(of moving objects or people) to crash into one another with force; (of people or their ideas) to come into conflict or strong disagreement.
- To crash into one another with force (of vehicles, objects, or people in motion).
- To come into sharp conflict or disagreement (of people, interests, or ideas).
"The two trains collided head-on just outside the station."
"A cyclist collided with an open car door on the narrow street."
"Their plans for the company's future collided at every turn."
When 'worlds collide,' it isn't physics — it's the moment two completely different lives, ideas, or cultures meet for the first time.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of collide
"Collide" entered English in the early seventeenth century, borrowed from Latin collidere, formed from com- ("together") and laedere ("to strike, hurt"). The same Latin root laedere gives us related words such as collision and, through its sense of causing harm, terms like "injurious." The verb originally described physical striking together, and its figurative sense of conflicting ideas developed later.
Related word forms
How collide is actually used
"Collide" is slightly more formal than "crash" and often appears in news reporting of accidents. In figurative use it implies genuine conflict rather than mild disagreement — you would not say two friends merely chatting "collided" over dinner.
Easily confused with collide
Collusion means a secret, illegal cooperation between parties, while collide means to crash into something or come into conflict.
Collapse means to fall down or fail suddenly, whereas collide refers to two things crashing into each other.