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:
On Monday the Court stopped a racial gerrymander in New York.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 3, 2026
For his part, Graves said he never believed his map was an illegal racial gerrymander, as Garcia’s lawsuit asserts.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2024
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
From this source we get "dark horse," "the gray mare is the better horse," "barrel of money," "buncombe," "gerrymander," "scalawag," "henchman," "logrolling," "pulling the wires," "taking the stump," "machine," "slate," etc.
From How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin
Justice McAllister did not explicitly find the State Senate or Assembly maps to be unconstitutional gerrymanders.
From New York Times ● Mar. 31, 2022
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
Imagine, then, that rather than drawing Texas into 38 gerrymandered districts, with each holding an election for one representative, Texas instead held one election—statewide—wherein all of its voters chose all of its 38 representatives.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2025
Members wrote folk songs and dressed up in costumes as gerrymandered districts to draw attention to the effort.
From New York Times ● Dec. 29, 2021
The map they form can at times resemble gerrymandered congressional districts, with it not unusual for neighboring farms to get water from canals that lead to mountains and reservoirs in opposite directions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2021
There are no gerrymandered voting districts in elections for senators.
From Textbooks ● Jul. 28, 2021
Is there any evidence that your state is "gerrymandered"?
From Government in the United States National, State and Local by James Wilford Garner
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
“When you’re gerrymandering, you’re making a bet that you know what the politics of the future will look like, and it’s hard to predict,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026
It wouldn’t be the first time that legislators have played hardball to work around restrictions on gerrymandering.
From Slate ● May 11, 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
This trick is called "gerrymandering," from Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, who was vice-president of the United States from 1813 to 1817.
From Civil Government in the United States Considered with Some Reference to Its Origins by John Fiske
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