Rally

How to spell rally

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rally

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rally mean?

1. verbTo bring people or things together again for a shared effort, or to recover strength after a difficulty.
2. nounA large public gathering organised to show support for a cause or candidate.
3. nounAn extended exchange of shots between players in tennis, badminton, or similar games.
4. nounA sustained recovery or rise in market prices after a period of decline.

Rally in a sentence

• verb

  The manager tried to rally the team after the disappointing quarter.

• noun

  Thousands attended the rally outside the town hall.

• noun

  The final point came after a thrilling thirty-stroke rally.

• noun

  The late afternoon rally pushed the index back into positive territory.

• verb

  Volunteers began to rally around the family who had lost their home.

• noun

  The candidate spoke at a campaign rally on Saturday afternoon.

Where does rally come from?

Language of origin: French

Rally entered English in the early 1600s from the French verb rallier, which meant 'to bring scattered troops back together'. That French word was built from re-, meaning 'again', plus allier, meaning 'to unite or ally', which itself descends from the Latin alligare, 'to bind to'. The original military picture is vivid: soldiers who had broken ranks were called back and bound once more into a fighting unit. From that core idea of regathering came the broader senses we use today, whether reassembling people for a cause, recovering one's strength after a setback, or prices climbing back up after a fall. The same Latin alligare also gives us 'ally' and 'alliance', so the family resemblance is real, and the single l in the first syllable but double l before the -y is the spot writers most often second-guess.

How the word is built

• ral- (from French rallier, from re- 'again'
• allier 'to unite, ally')
• -y