Meaning & use
network with
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Meanings
verbintransitive
to meet and talk to people in your field in order to build useful professional or social contacts.
Grammar: No direct object; the person or group comes after with: network with alumni.
Patterns
- network with someone
- network with people in something
- network with someone at an event
She spends every conference coffee break networking with potential clients.
If you want to work in publishing, you should network with editors and agents.
He networked with other startup founders at the after-party.
verbtransitive or intransitivetechnical
to connect computers or systems so that they can share information with each other.
Grammar: Can take an object (network the printers with the laptops) or stand alone with with.
Patterns
- network something with something
- network with something
The lab networked the new servers with the older machines.
Our laptops network with each other automatically over Wi-Fi.
Word forms
| third person singular | networks with |
|---|---|
| past tense | networked with |
| past participle | networked with |
| -ing form | networking with |
Common combinations
- network with colleagues
- She networks with colleagues from other departments at lunch.
- network with potential clients
- The dinner is a chance to network with potential clients.
- actively network with
- He actively networks with recruiters on LinkedIn.
- a chance to network with
- The fair is a good chance to network with local employers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mingle with
- Means chatting informally in a group; it is more social and does not necessarily suggest building useful contacts.
- make contacts
- Focuses on the result (getting names and connections) rather than the activity of talking to people.
- connect with
- Often used online and stresses forming a link, while network with stresses repeated, deliberate effort.
Word family
- network verb
- to build contacts or link systems, used without with when no person follows.
- networking noun
- the activity of meeting people to build contacts.
- networker noun
- a person who is good at building professional contacts.
Commonly confused: network with or work with?
network with vs work with
Work with someone means doing a job together; network with someone means meeting them mainly to build contacts, not to complete a task.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'network with' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Network with' needs the preposition with before the person. 'Networked several investors' wrongly treats it as a direct object, and 'to' or 'for' do not fit this pattern.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “network with”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.