coalesce
Americanverb (used without object)
-
coalesces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
coalesced,
past participle, past
-
coalescing
present participle
-
to grow together or into one body.
The two lakes coalesced into one.
-
to unite so as to form one mass, community, etc..
The various groups coalesced into a crowd.
-
to blend or come together.
Their ideas coalesced into one theory.
verb (used with object)
-
coalesces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
coalesced,
past participle, past
-
coalescing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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coalescencenoun
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noncoalescencenoun
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coalescentadjective
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noncoalescentadjective
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noncoalescingadjective
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uncoalescentadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
coalescesimple
-
coalescessimple
-
have coalescedperfect
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has coalescedperfect
-
am coalescingprogressive
-
are coalescingprogressive
-
is coalescingprogressive
-
have been coalescingperfect progressive
-
has been coalescingperfect progressive
Past
-
coalescedsimple
-
had coalescedperfect
-
was coalescingprogressive
-
were coalescingprogressive
-
had been coalescingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of coalesce
First recorded in 1535–45; from Latin coalēscere, equivalent to co- co- + al- (stem of alere “to nourish, make grow”) + -escere -esce
Explanation
Waiting for a plan to come together? You're waiting for it to coalesce. Coalesce is when different elements of something join together and become one. In coalesce, you see co-, which should tell you the word means "together." The other half of the word comes from alescere, a Latin verb meaning "to grow up." So if you are trying to start up a photography club at school, once you have an advisor, some interested students, and support from the administration, things will hopefully coalesce, or come together, to make it happen.
Vocabulary lists containing coalesce
"A Quilt of a Country," Vocabulary from the argument
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Flowers for Algernon
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This Week in Words: December 9 - 15, 2017
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Crowley and his backers had undertaken an intense late-July sprint to persuade Democrats to coalesce around him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
What the polls generally failed to foresee—and arguably shouldn’t have been expected to, given the fluctuating field—was that just enough voters would ultimately coalesce behind Crowley to put him over the top.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2026
Steinhauser said he expected Paxton’s campaign to “recalibrate a little bit on focus and messaging for the general election” and coalesce Republican voters.
From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026
Still, not long ago, it looked like the team might never coalesce the way everyone envisioned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
About 300,000 years after their appearance, matter and energy started to coalesce into complex structures, called atoms, which then combined into molecules.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
A cohort of skilled people coalesces, and the Junglekeepers nonprofit is born, taking donations for land acquisition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who often performs strongly early in sprint weekends before the natural order coalesces later on, was third fastest, 0.386secs off the pace.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025
As it all coalesces, there is a sense of visceral, emotional catharsis that could only be achieved at the end of a long journey.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2024
The movie can be confusing as the parallel realities become ever more complex, but it eventually coalesces into a poignant tale about the stories we tell ourselves in order to deal with traumatic events.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
The group coalesces around the front-runners as Frederick and his pursuers get to their feet, all of them pasted with snow.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Opposition has also coalesced around religious appeals from a theologically diverse group of residents, leaders and politicians who see data center development as an affront to their most sacred values.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
Cabinet reshuffles require parliamentary approval -- although lawmakers have largely coalesced around Zelensky since Russia's invasion, and do not typically block his agenda.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
Several of those donors then coalesced behind former Biden Cabinet member Xavier Becerra, who was struggling to connect with California voters before he surged to become a front-runner, recent opininon polls show.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
A wary Tinseltown reluctantly coalesced around the Netflix bid, seeing it as the lesser of two evils, but Paramount's willingness to stump up ever greater sums eventually saw the streamer withdraw.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
Blacks, most of whom did not work for Swift, coalesced in the narrow strip of land just east of the immigrants, forming the community that came to be known as the Black Belt.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
Activists across the U.S. are coalescing around concerns about AI-related job losses, data-center sprawl and AI-fueled cyberattacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
Opinion polls bear this out, with more voters saying they are undecided or coalescing behind any of the dozen prominent candidates who have announced bids.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
Economists say Fed officials are coalescing around another rate cut due to continued concern about the health of the jobs market.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 22, 2025
The depth of digital, data, AI, and engineering expertise all coalescing at one location makes India highly sought after, say industry leaders.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2025
For instance, this one, now, coalescing in the air like a queer humidity.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
