Definition of "cognate"

cognate

/ˈkɒɡ.neɪt/

adjective
not comparable
1. (law) related on the mother's side.
2. Of the same or a similar nature; of the same family; proceeding from the same stock or root.
  Quotations
  This explanation provoked further great hilarity among the members of the committee. And the frankness was admired by many with which Louit, on his return, confessed to having found, in the course of his excursion, three barns in all, of which two contained empty bottles and the third the skeleton of a goat. But in other quarters this and cognate statements were viewed in another and less friendly light.
  1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, Olympia Press
3. (linguistics) Descended from the same source lexemes (same etymons) of an ancestor language.
noun
plural cognates
1. One of a number of things allied in origin or nature.
2. (law, dated) One who is related to another on the female side.
3. (law, dated) One who is related to another, both having descended from a common ancestor through legal marriages.
4. (linguistics) A word either descended from the same base word of the same ancestor language as the given word, or strongly believed to be a regular reflex of the same reconstructed root of proto-language as the given word.