Reunite

How to spell reunite

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce reunite

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does reunite mean?

1. verbTo bring people or things back together after a period of separation.

Reunite in a sentence

• The charity works to reunite refugees with their families.

• The band agreed to reunite for a single farewell tour.

Where does reunite come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word joins the prefix re-, meaning 'again' or 'back', to the verb unite. Unite itself reaches English from the Latin verb unire, 'to join into one', which was built directly on unus, the Latin word for 'one'. The sense, then, is literally to make one again, to put back together what had been parted. English took unite in the fifteenth century from Latin and Old French sources, and reunite followed in the early seventeenth century as the natural compound for restoring a former union. The same unus root underlies a whole family of familiar words such as union, unity, unique and universe, and remembering that core 'one' helps explain why the word keeps the plain spelling u-n-i-t-e after the prefix.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• unite (to join into one, from Latin unus 'one')