gravitate
Americanverb (used without object)
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gravitates,
present (3rd person singular)
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gravitated,
past participle, past
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gravitating
present participle
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to move or tend to move under the influence of gravitational force.
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to tend toward the lowest level; sink; fall.
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to have a natural tendency or be strongly attracted (usually followed by to ortoward ).
Musicians gravitate toward one another.
verb
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physics to move under the influence of gravity
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to be influenced or drawn, as by strong impulses
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to sink or settle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gravitatesimple
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gravitatessimple
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have gravitatedperfect
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has gravitatedperfect
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am gravitatingprogressive
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are gravitatingprogressive
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is gravitatingprogressive
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have been gravitatingperfect progressive
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has been gravitatingperfect progressive
Past
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gravitatedsimple
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had gravitatedperfect
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was gravitatingprogressive
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were gravitatingprogressive
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had been gravitatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gravitate
First recorded in 1635–45; from New Latin gravitātus (past participle of gravitāre “to obey the laws of gravitation,” coined by Sir Isaac Newton ); see gravity, -ate 1
Explanation
To gravitate is to move toward or feel attracted to something. People gravitate toward things they like. Gravitate used to refer to how gravity pulls objects toward the Earth, but now it also describes how people are pulled toward things they like. Little kids gravitate towards playgrounds, someone athletic will gravitate toward sports, and someone with a nice voice might gravitate toward a singing career. Dogs gravitate toward squirrels — they move toward them whenever they have a chance. But don’t blame gravity for that one!
Vocabulary lists containing gravitate
Good Grief!: Grav, Griev
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"Simplexity," Vocabulary from the science writing
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Stargirl
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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:
Most viewers who gravitate to this “Hollywood Crime Story” installment will know something of American film history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
“Same as music, I always gravitate to music that helps you think. We live in a world filled with millions of distractions and a combination of things that block your thinking.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
"He's a magnet, people just gravitate towards him," Maria says.
From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026
“More broadly, competing against futures is not new for Cboe, and options have steadily been taking share from futures over time as investors gravitate towards the asymmetric upside potential and defined downside.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026
“It’s a bad sign,” said Scythe Hideyoshi, “when our young hopefuls gravitate so openly to the enemy.”
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
When volatility rises, capital gravitates toward systems that can contain it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
They are the kinds of stocks Warren Buffett External link gravitates toward.
From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026
Pappano, whose parents were Italian immigrants, gravitates naturally toward the works of that tradition.
From New York Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
While she noted that it would be “so stupid” for her to be picky with projects, she said she gravitates toward films that allow for more creative freedom and expression.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2024
Lately Gogol has started to notice a trend: now that they inhabit this world of couples, dinner party small talk gravitates to the naming of children.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
I had gravitated to the color like a moth to light, seeking the dopamine hit of its glow, as if by osmosis I could absorb and become it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
He gravitated to art classes in school and said that, by age 11, he had decided to become an artist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Becerra appeared unprepared for the speed at which voters and others gravitated toward him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
“That younger customer has really gravitated towards us, which has been part of the strategy and it’s really starting to take root,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
He soon gravitated to the twenty-seven- inch cyclotron, which occupied the ramshackle old Rad Lab next door to Lewis’s domain, Gilman Hall.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
For years, I’ve found myself gravitating towards stories about neighborhood restaurants, family businesses, local farmers, and food traditions — not because they’re quaint or nostalgic, but because they’re windows into something larger.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
GLP-1 users and everyone else are gravitating toward protein, fresh ingredients and cleaner labels.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
The Mark Taper Forum had to suspend programming for more than a year, smaller companies still in operation are producing fewer shows, and producers everywhere are gravitating toward the bankably familiar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
According to Jay Hatfield, CEO of Infrastructure Capital Advisors, investors in search of the next big momentum trade are gravitating back toward speculative stocks following a months-long break.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026
Each of them always gravitating toward the other.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
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.
