Converge

How to spell converge

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce converge

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does converge mean?

1. verbTo come together and meet at a common point, or to gradually move toward the same opinion, result, or state.

Converge in a sentence

• The two motorways converge just north of the city.

• After months of debate the negotiators began to converge on a single plan.

Where does converge come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb convergere, which combined con-, meaning 'together', with vergere, meaning 'to bend, incline, or turn towards something'. The literal sense was therefore of two or more things inclining toward a common point. The plain vergere also survives in the related English word 'verge', the edge or border one turns toward. English adopted converge in the seventeenth century, largely through scientific and mathematical writing about rays of light and lines meeting at a single point. From that geometric beginning the meaning broadened to describe people, ideas, or routes coming together, while its opposite, 'diverge', uses the same vergere root with the prefix di- meaning 'apart'. Remembering that buried verg from 'verge' helps explain why the middle is spelled with a g rather than a j.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• verg (to bend, incline, turn)
• -e (verb ending)