Gather

How to spell gather

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gather

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gather mean?

1. verbTo bring together or collect people, things, or information into one place.
2. verbTo conclude or understand something from available information.

Gather in a sentence

• The family will gather at the house for the holidays.

• From the tone of the email we could gather that the deal was off.

• Please gather the receipts before you start the expense claim.

• Readers can gather the meaning from the surrounding sentences.

Where does gather come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Gather comes from the Old English verb gaderian, which meant to bring or come together into one place. That word grew from a West Germanic root linked to the idea of being united or joined, and the same family gave us the everyday word together and even good, in the old sense of things that fit or suit one another. For centuries the sense stayed close to its origin: to collect scattered things, people, or crops into a single group. Over time it also picked up the figurative meaning of drawing a conclusion, as in piecing scattered facts together in the mind, and in sewing it came to mean pulling cloth into small folds. The spelling keeps the soft th sound and the unstressed second syllable, so writers occasionally hesitate over the middle vowel even though the word itself is very common.

How the word is built

• gader- (from Old English gaderian: to bring together)
• -er (verb ending retained in modern spelling)