gathering
UK/ˈɡæð.ə.ɹɪŋ//ˈɡæð.ɚ.ɪŋ/
gathering noun: a meeting or get-together; a party or social function. Also the present participle and gerund of gather.
Noun
gathering (plural gatherings)
- A meeting or get-together; a party or social function.
- The dinner was a star-spangled gathering unequaled in history.
- I met her at a gathering of engineers and scientists.
- Synonyms:
- assemblage, affair
- A group of people or things.
- a gathering of Catholics
- Synonyms:
- assemblage, concourse, congregation
- A section, a group of bifolios, or sheets of paper, stacked together and folded in half.
- This gathering machine forms the backbone of a bookbinding operation.
- A charitable contribution; a collection.
- The collection of produce, items, goods, etc.; the practice of collecting food from nature.
- The Neolithic culture from 8000 to 6000 B.C., however, was a brilliant period of the revival of crafts, the transformation of gathering into gardening, the growth of a cross-cultural obsidian trade, and the rise of towns.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 130
- A tumor or boil suppurated or maturated; an abscess.
Adjective
gathering (not comparable)
- That gathers together.
- She was worried by the gathering stormclouds.
- On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which...1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668
Also used as
gathering is also the present participle and gerund of gather.
gathering meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Punjabi
gathering in Urdu
- اجتماع
gathering in Bengali
- জমায়েত
gathering in Malayalam
- ഒത്തുചേരൽ
gathering in Punjabi
- ਇਕੱਠ
More languagesFewer languages
- gathering in Nepali
- भेला
- gathering in Malay
- perhimpunan
Examples of gathering in a sentence
- My old encyclopedia has been gathering dust on the shelf for the past decade.
- The ceremonies in the gathering were first inducted by the Venetians.
- An orderly gathering of citizens stood on the corner awaiting the bus.
Synonyms of gathering
Forms of gathering
| plural | gatherings |
|---|
Origin of gathering
From Middle English gadering, from Old English gaderung (“gathering, assembly”), equivalent to gather + -ing (verbal noun ending).
From Middle English gaderynge, equivalent to gather + -ing (present participle ending).
Words formed from gathering
Phrases with gathering
- gathering up
- gathering way
- gathering coal
- gathering dust
- gathering hoop
- gathering pace
- gathering board
- gathering coals
- gathering hoops
- gathering speed
- gathering steam
- gathering boards
6 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about gathering
- What does gathering mean?
- Gathering means a meeting or get-together; a party or social function.
- What is gathering in Urdu?
- Gathering in Urdu is اجتماع. See Gathering meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is gathering?
- Gathering can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce gathering?
- Gathering is pronounced /ˈɡæð.ə.ɹɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of gathering?
- The plural of gathering is gatherings.
Words near gathering in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gathering (page history and authors); gathering (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gathering (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gathering (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gathering (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gathering (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gathering.ogg.
Cite this entry: “gathering.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gathering. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.