Definition of congregate in English:
- He said the rank at the moment has to deal with too many taxis and has become a hot-spot for trouble because of crowds congregating there at night.
- The crowd had congregated in the street during the evening and had been drinking outside due to the warm weather.
- Their trial had the people of south Wales holding their breath, with a 5,000 strong crowd congregating outside the court on the first day.
Late Middle English: from Latin congregat- 'collected (into a flock), united', from the verb congregare, from con- 'together' + gregare (from grex, greg- 'a flock').
The Latin word for a herd or flock was grex, giving congregare, meaning ‘to collect into a herd or flock, to unite’. Gregarious (mid 17th century), meaning ‘fond of company’, is also descended from grex, as are aggregate (Late Middle English) ‘herd together’; egregious (mid 16th century) ‘standing out from the herd’ and originally complimentary; and segregation (mid 16th century) ‘set apart from the herd’.
Words that rhyme with congregateirrigate • castigate
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