What does schoolfellow mean?
A schoolfellow is someone who went to the same school as you, usually as a fellow pupil during the same period. The word is formal and carries a sense of shared experience: it can evoke childhood friendship, school reunions, or memories of a particular institution. In everyday conversation, schoolmate and classmate are generally more common, though schoolfellow remains especially natural in phrases such as old schoolfellow and former schoolfellow. It is useful when the emphasis is on attendance at the same school rather than simply on being classmates in a particular lesson. The term can also apply to people who attended the same school at different times, as in a reference to a former schoolfellow.
nounA person who attended the same school as someone else, especially during the same period of time. The term is formal and somewhat old-fashioned.
- A person who attended the same school as another person, especially as a fellow pupil at the same time.
"She met an old schoolfellow at the reunion."
"He recognised his schoolfellow from the photograph on the noticeboard."
"The two former schoolfellows had not seen each other since university."
The regular plural is schoolfellows.
"Several schoolfellows attended the ceremony."
A schoolfellow is not merely a classmate today: the word carries the atmosphere of shared school days and reunions many years later.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of schoolfellow
Schoolfellow is a compound of school and fellow. School comes through Middle English from Old English scōl, ultimately from Latin schola and Greek scholē, meaning a place for learning. Fellow derives from Old English fēolwe, meaning a companion or associate, and ultimately from a Germanic root; related forms include fellowship.
Related word forms
How schoolfellow is actually used
Schoolfellow is formal and somewhat dated, with a nostalgic or literary tone. It is especially common in British English, while schoolmate and classmate are more usual in everyday modern usage. In American English, the standard pronunciation is /ˈskuːlˌfæloʊ/.