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I am thinking this word for a long, I have visited synonyms, but I am not able to figure out if "peer" can be used to show a connection between two professions, they might belong to different roles or even different industries. I am looking for that kind of word to replace the Word "Connection", as it doesn't suit many places where we show an association between these two entities. Any help to find that word will highly appreciated. Below is some more description:

  1. Connection can be made between two Persons.
  2. Person might be Student or Working Professional or Retired Professional.
  3. Professional would be from Different roles and Industries.
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An example definition of peer is:

a person who is equal to another in abilities, qualifications, age, background, and social status.

this doesn't quite fit your criteria, because there is no implication of a connection between the individual and their peer and furthermore the definition of peer implies similarities between the individual and their peer, whereas your description explicitly states there may be differences.

One word you might consider is acquaintance:

  1. a person known to one, but usually not a close friend.

  2. the state of being acquainted or casually familiar with someone or something

This covers the fact that the person being referred to is known/connected to the person calling them an acquaintance and does not restrict this connection to be through a common job status, profession or industry. I have always thought that for someone to be an acquaintance of mine, I have to have met (or at least communicated with) them, although the dictionary definition does not appear to make this explicitly mandatory.

Another word you might be able to consider is colleague, which is a synonym for associate:

  1. a person who shares actively in anything as a business, enterprise, or undertaking; partner; colleague; fellow worker

  2. a companion or comrade

  3. a confederate; an accomplice or ally

In my experience someone is usually referred to as a colleague if they share an employer (so work for the same company, business or organisation), but this is not strictly necessary for the word to be appropriate.

I hope that's helpful to you - I'm new to ELL so any feedback I could use to make future answers better is most welcome.

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  • acquaintance is somewhat close, and is meaningful and having generic compatibility, but is not an easy to understand by a network where we are having a lot diversities, like student, retired, professional, native English, non natives ans so one, can we have something short and well known word?
    – Banci Gurjar
    Dec 21, 2016 at 12:12
  • Associate? Contact? Friend? Companion? Any of these might be appropriate depending on the exact nature of the relationship between the individuals.
    – 3N1GM4
    Dec 21, 2016 at 12:15
  • Associate is something compatible, can we say like likedin.com, that "205 Associates", Companion is more closer and gives an informal background.
    – Banci Gurjar
    Dec 21, 2016 at 12:22
  • Companion certainly fits the 3 bullet points in the question, but it does imply a degree of familiarity ("a person or animal with whom one spends a lot of time or with whom one travels") which may or may not be appropriate in the specific situation being asked about.
    – 3N1GM4
    Dec 21, 2016 at 12:27
  • Yeah, So I am thinking to go with associate, word, thank you very much Dear @3N1GM4
    – Banci Gurjar
    Dec 21, 2016 at 12:31

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