coalesce
Americanverb (used without object)
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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.
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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
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coalescesimple
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coalescessimple
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have coalescedperfect
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has coalescedperfect
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am coalescingprogressive
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are coalescingprogressive
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is coalescingprogressive
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have been coalescingperfect progressive
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has been coalescingperfect progressive
Past
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coalescedsimple
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had coalescedperfect
-
was coalescingprogressive
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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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myPerspectives 9.1
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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:
What is true today, as potential bidders for the Dodgers lurk and coalesce amid L.A.’s turn at uncertainty, is that the Padres have an energetic and effervescent couple as their new principal owners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 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
His supporting cast of Europe-based almost-stars will need to coalesce big time.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
But Ms. Fridland cautions against assuming that we are destined to coalesce around a common manner of speech.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
Steam began to coalesce in a film of vapor on the upper reaches of the windows, closing the courtroom in a little, muffling the pale morning light.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
A tense family coalesces around the memorial of its eldest son, cut down in the prime of what seems like an argument-leaden life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Mr. Clayton’s “Finding Ways,” whose triumphant melody coalesces from a loose geometry of intervals, and which relies on tension-and-release, suggests the architecture and motion of music by pianist Andrew Hill, another 1960s Blue Note hero.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025
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
All of it coalesces the sad moral of the story: these people are small.
From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2023
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
Until the opposition coalesced behind Mundubile, re-election had looked all but certain for the 64-year-old Hichilema, widely known as "HH".
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
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
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
They coalesced around requiring utilities to pay community solar developers and customers for the electricity they feed to the grid using the same formula they use for people who install rooftop solar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2026
Beidleman, Groom, their clients, and two Sherpas from Fischer’s team who had belatedly materialized out of the mist—Tashi Tshering and Ngawang Dorje—had coalesced into a single group.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
“People are coalescing and they’re demanding that policymakers make change.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
A battle between gold bugs and bullion bears appeared to be coalescing around the $4,000 an ounce mark on Tuesday, as the precious metal is on track to register its worst quarter in 13 years.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
These deals reflect a growing awareness that issues previously managed separately—such as identity and access management, model security, and security operations—are coalescing into a broader, unified challenge with AI, as agents work across systems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
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
They are presumed to be planets that never quite made it, owing to the unsettling gravitational pull of Jupiter, which kept–and keeps–them from coalescing.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
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.
