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All confusables

Colleague / Fellow colleague

Usage

Colleague already expresses shared work or professional membership. Fellow colleague is usually redundant, though fellow can sometimes be used deliberately for emphasis.

Colleague

Use when

You mean a person you work with or someone in the same profession or organisation.

Example

“My colleague from Finance will join the meeting.”

Fellow colleague

Use when

Avoid the extra fellow in ordinary formal writing unless you deliberately want rhetorical emphasis on shared membership.

Example

“Replace 'my fellow colleague' with 'my colleague'.”

Quick check

fellow colleague, fellow colleagues

Source checked 2026-08-13 (opens in a new tab)