gerrymander
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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gerrymanders,
present (3rd person singular)
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gerrymandered,
past participle, past
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gerrymandering
present participle
verb
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to divide the constituencies of (a voting area) so as to give one party an unfair advantage
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to manipulate or adapt to one's advantage
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gerrymandersimple
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gerrymanderssimple
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have gerrymanderedperfect
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has gerrymanderedperfect
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am gerrymanderingprogressive
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are gerrymanderingprogressive
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is gerrymanderingprogressive
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have been gerrymanderingperfect progressive
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has been gerrymanderingperfect progressive
Past
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gerrymanderedsimple
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had gerrymanderedperfect
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was gerrymanderingprogressive
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were gerrymanderingprogressive
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had been gerrymanderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gerrymander
1812, after E. Gerry (governor of Massachusetts, whose party redistricted the state in 1812) + (sala)mander, from the fancied resemblance of the map of Essex County, Mass., to this animal, after the redistricting
Explanation
Some politicians change the boundaries of their voting districts in order to benefit themselves or their political party. To manipulate the boundaries like this — often viewed as unfair — is to gerrymander. The verb gerrymander first appeared in 1812 when Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry redrew district boundaries, hoping it would help his party in an upcoming senate election. Then somebody noticed that the new district looked like a salamander, so they combined Gerry and -mander to create the new word gerrymander. And then a newspaper printed a cartoon with a giant salamander making fun of Gerry, which is what happens to politicians who don’t behave.
Vocabulary lists containing gerrymander
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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:
Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion gives a detailed history of Section 2 and a tour of the Court’s messy racial gerrymander jurisprudence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
Ultimately, of course, even if California adopts a principled, automated redistricting system, Texas may gerrymander anyway.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2025
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Alabama can’t use its congressional map with only one majority Black district, reasoning it was likely a discriminatory racial gerrymander that runs afoul of the Voting Rights Act.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 8, 2023
The infamous discussion between three council members and a labor leader focused, after all, on how best to gerrymander the politicians’ districts to benefit them and their Latino allies and hurt their rival colleagues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2022
It was from this incident that the word "gerrymander," so often heard in politics in these days, took its name.
From The Greater Republic A History of the United States by Charles Morris
Nate Persily, a Stanford Law School professor and expert on election law and democracy, said that any standard for judging partisan gerrymanders has to be above reproach.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2023
Earls, the founder and former executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, had battled Republican gerrymanders in North Carolina for years before winning election to the court in 2018.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2022
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice is holding dozens of seminars across eight states that include how to identify gerrymanders using mapping software, said Jeff Loperfido, the group's senior counsel.
From Reuters ● Aug. 13, 2021
In some states, however, such as Michigan, the gerrymanders have been so heavy-handed and awkward that “those dikes could break,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2018
A striking instance of this is furnished by the power to nullify legislative gerrymanders.
From The American Judiciary by Simeon E. Baldwin, LLD
For the other implications of the Wisconsin race, especially for the state’s heavily gerrymandered legislative maps, I recommend Reid’s latest article.
From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2023
In the meantime, jurors should remember that they each have the independent power to cast a vote that cannot be overridden, overruled, or gerrymandered away.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2022
The first Latino supervisor, Gloria Molina, was elected in 1991 after a lawsuit alleging that the supervisors had gerrymandered district lines to keep the growing Latino population from power.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2021
There are no gerrymandered voting districts in elections for senators.
From Textbooks ● Jul. 28, 2021
Professor Commons states that whenever the periodical rearrangement of constituencies takes place the boundaries are "gerrymandered."
From Proportional Representation A Study in Methods of Election by John H. Humphreys
But his prior comments, as well his efforts to end gerrymandering across the nation since leaving office, have made clear that his views have not changed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Speaking with a local radio show, he said “I don’t know if you know what gerrymandering is, but it’s not good.”
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2026
Until that happens, the constitutional rules against legislative gerrymandering remain in force.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
That case remains pending, and assuming the court in Callais continues to recognize racial gerrymandering as unconstitutional, it should not have a direct effect on the California case.
From Slate ● Nov. 18, 2025
For years North and South Carolina each sent at least one negro member to the House of Representatives and, but for flagrant gerrymandering, might have sent more.
From The New South A Chronicle of Social and Industrial Evolution by Holland Thompson
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.
