Meaning & use
bedmate
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Meanings
nouncountable
A person who shares a bed with you, especially a partner or a child.
Grammar: Countable: one bedmate, two bedmates. Often used with a possessive: my bedmate.
Patterns
- someone's bedmate
- share a bed with a bedmate
He snored so loudly that his bedmate moved to the sofa.
As children, the sisters were bedmates during cold winters.
nouncountablefigurative
A person or group you are closely associated with, especially in a doubtful or unlikely partnership.
Grammar: Used figuratively, often in political or business writing about odd alliances.
Patterns
- an unlikely bedmate
- political bedmates
- strange bedmates
The two parties became unlikely bedmates in the new coalition.
Business and environmental groups are strange bedmates at this conference.
Word forms
| plural | bedmates |
|---|
Common combinations
- an unlikely bedmate
- The senator found an unlikely bedmate in the rival party.
- strange bedmates
- Politics and poetry make strange bedmates.
- share a bed with your bedmate
- He caught a cold from his bedmate.
- political bedmates
- The two leaders were political bedmates for years.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bedfellow
- Almost the same meaning and more common in the fixed phrase 'strange bedfellows'; it sounds slightly more literary.
- partner
- Much broader and neutral; it does not by itself suggest sharing a bed.
- roommate
- Someone who shares a room, not necessarily a bed, and is the usual word for students and tenants.
Word family
Commonly confused: bedmate or bedfellow? bedmate or roommate?
bedmate vs bedfellow
Nearly the same, but 'bedfellow' is far more common in the figurative phrase 'strange bedfellows', while 'bedmate' is used more literally.
bedmate vs roommate
A roommate shares a room or apartment, not a bed, so it is the safer word for student housing.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'bedmate' in its usual figurative sense?
Choose one answer.
The figurative sense describes an odd or unlikely partnership, as in 'strange bedmates'. The other options use the literal sense of someone sharing a bed, which is possible but not what 'strange bedmates' means.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bedmate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.