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
Opponents of the retaliatory gerrymander include former California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2025
Ultimately, of course, even if California adopts a principled, automated redistricting system, Texas may gerrymander anyway.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2025
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 "gerrymander": what is it, and has it been used in your state?
From Community Civics and Rural Life by Arthur William Dunn
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
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
A federal court eventually struck some boundaries down as racial gerrymanders and the Supreme Court affirmed that decision.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2018
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
The Reichstag, or national parliament, was grossly gerrymandered in favor of the upper classes, and the government was not responsible to its lawmakers, but rather to a capricious monarch.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2025
In two separate cases, Earls and Riggs succeeded in getting courts to strike down gerrymandered election districts in their state.
From Slate ● Oct. 25, 2024
Even McKinley, who earlier had been gerrymandered into victory, lost his seat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2024
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
Counsels less wise and just prevailed, and the united province was "gerrymandered" against Lord Durham's protest.
From George Brown by John Lewis
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
Because in a world in which there’s some constraint on political gerrymandering, it’s not unreasonable for folks to think, Well, let’s really put some teeth into that constraint in our state.
From Slate ● May 7, 2026
Until that happens, the constitutional rules against legislative gerrymandering remain in force.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
He" Lord Burton, "asked why this drastic, this dishonest, this catchpenny, this gerrymandering Bill should have been brought in?....
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, March 25, 1893 by Various
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.
