Meaning & use
Sherpa
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A member of a people who live in the high mountain regions of Nepal and are well known for guiding and supporting climbers.
Grammar: Capitalized when it names the people; the plural can be Sherpas or Sherpa.
Patterns
- a Sherpa guide
The expedition hired a Sherpa who had climbed Everest many times.
Sherpas fixed the ropes and carried supplies to the high camps.
Her grandfather was a Sherpa from a village near Namche Bazaar.
nouncountableinformalfigurative
An experienced person who guides someone through a difficult or complicated process.
Grammar: Used figuratively and often written with a lowercase s: a startup sherpa.
Patterns
- a sherpa for someone
- act as a sherpa
A friend in accounting acted as my sherpa through the visa paperwork.
Every new employee gets a sherpa who explains how things really work.
She hired a financial sherpa to help her sort out the inheritance.
nouncountablespecialist
A senior official who prepares the agenda and agreements for a summit meeting of national leaders.
Grammar: Often lowercase: the G7 sherpas.
Patterns
- a sherpa for something
The sherpas spent weeks drafting the summit communique.
Each country sent its chief sherpa to the preparatory meeting.
Disagreements between the sherpas delayed the final statement.
Word forms
| plural | Sherpas |
|---|
Common combinations
- a Sherpa guide
- A Sherpa guide led the group up the glacier.
- Everest Sherpas
- Everest Sherpas often make several climbs in one season.
- a trusted sherpa
- He found a trusted sherpa to explain the tax rules.
- act as a sherpa
- She agreed to act as a sherpa for the new team members.
- G7 sherpa
- The G7 sherpa negotiated the wording for weeks.
Synonyms and how they differ
- guide
- Guide is the general word for anyone who leads others, while Sherpa literally names a mountain people and figuratively suggests help through something very demanding.
- mentor
- A mentor offers long-term advice about a career or life, whereas a sherpa helps with a specific, difficult journey or task.
- adviser
- An adviser gives suggestions, but a sherpa usually walks you through the process step by step and helps with the heavy lifting.
Word family
- Sherpani noun
- a Sherpa woman, especially a mountain guide
- sherpa verb
- to guide or carry for someone, used informally
Commonly confused: Sherpa or guide?
Sherpa vs guide
Not every mountain guide is a Sherpa; the word Sherpa first names an ethnic group, so use it for a person's background only when it is true.
Practice
In business writing, what does calling someone a 'sherpa' usually mean?
Choose one answer.
Figuratively, a sherpa is a knowledgeable guide who gets someone through a complicated task. The leader and new employee options reverse the idea, and the climber option is only the literal sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Sherpa”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.