- present participle of gather.
gathering
Americannoun
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an assembly or meeting.
- Synonyms:
- assemblage
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an assemblage of people; group or crowd.
- Synonyms:
- throng, company, concourse, congregation
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a collection, assemblage, or compilation of anything.
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the act of a person or thing that gathers.
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something that is gathered together.
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an inflamed and suppurating swelling.
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(in a flue, duct, or the like) a tapered section forming a transition between two sections, one of which has a greater area than the other.
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Bookbinding. a section in a book, usually a sheet cut into several leaves.
noun
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a group of people, things, etc, that are gathered together; assembly
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sewing a gather or series of gathers in material
-
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the formation of pus in a boil
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the pus so formed
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printing an informal name for section
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gathering
First recorded before 900; Middle English gaderinge, Old English gaderunge; equivalent to gather + -ing 1
Vocabulary lists containing gathering
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.
Gathering it all in one place makes it feel less like its encroaching on your life.
From BBC • Jun. 28, 2026
Gathering the required 500 signatures is relatively easy in citywide races but harder in council and school board districts.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2026
Gathering and parsing it can require thousands of analysts grinding for hours over communications intercepts, photographs and radar images as they try to divine the locations of missile launchers, tunnels and other targets.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 7, 2026
Other topics mentioned included Vance’s fandom of Magic: The Gathering, his opinions on cargo shorts, his “dad icks,” his preferred memes, and his “secret to keeping his marriage solid.”
From Slate • Dec. 18, 2025
Gathering her skirts about her she hurried across the green, skirted the square in a wide arc, and fled home to her uncle’s house.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
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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.