Rallies

How to spell rallies

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rallies

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rallies mean?

1. nounMass meetings or gatherings of people held to support a cause or show enthusiasm.
2. verbComes together again or recovers strength, as a group regrouping or a market climbing back.

Rallies in a sentence

• noun

  The campaign held several rallies across the country before the vote.

• verb

  Whenever the share price dips, it usually rallies within a few days.

• noun

  Weekend rallies outside the town hall drew thousands of supporters.

• verb

  The team always rallies behind its captain after a setback.

Where does rallies come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the plural and third-person form of 'rally', which English took from the French verb rallier in the 1600s. That French word was built from re-, meaning 'again', and allier, meaning 'to unite' or 'to ally', so the literal sense was 'to bring together again'. It first described a commander gathering scattered troops back into order on a battlefield, and from that military picture grew the modern ideas of people massing for a cause, a market price recovering its strength, and a player fighting back in a game. The same allier root sits inside the everyday words 'ally' and 'alliance', which is a useful reminder that rally is about joining forces. The spelling trap lies at the end: the base word ends in -y, and when it is made plural or third person the y turns into -ies, not -ys.

How the word is built

• rally (from French rallier: to reunite)
• -es (plural noun / third-person singular verb ending, y changing to ie)