coalesce
Americanverb (used without object)
-
coalesces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
coalesced,
past participle, past
-
coalescing
present participle
-
to grow together or into one body.
The two lakes coalesced into one.
-
to unite so as to form one mass, community, etc..
The various groups coalesced into a crowd.
-
to blend or come together.
Their ideas coalesced into one theory.
verb (used with object)
-
coalesces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
coalesced,
past participle, past
-
coalescing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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coalescencenoun
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noncoalescencenoun
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coalescentadjective
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noncoalescentadjective
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noncoalescingadjective
-
uncoalescentadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
coalescesimple
-
coalescessimple
-
have coalescedperfect
-
has coalescedperfect
-
am coalescingprogressive
-
are coalescingprogressive
-
is coalescingprogressive
-
have been coalescingperfect progressive
-
has been coalescingperfect progressive
Past
-
coalescedsimple
-
had coalescedperfect
-
was coalescingprogressive
-
were coalescingprogressive
-
had been coalescingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of coalesce
First recorded in 1535–45; from Latin coalēscere, equivalent to co- co- + al- (stem of alere “to nourish, make grow”) + -escere -esce
Explanation
Waiting for a plan to come together? You're waiting for it to coalesce. Coalesce is when different elements of something join together and become one. In coalesce, you see co-, which should tell you the word means "together." The other half of the word comes from alescere, a Latin verb meaning "to grow up." So if you are trying to start up a photography club at school, once you have an advisor, some interested students, and support from the administration, things will hopefully coalesce, or come together, to make it happen.
Vocabulary lists containing coalesce
"A Quilt of a Country," Vocabulary from the argument
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Flowers for Algernon
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myPerspectives 9.1
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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:
Traditionally, the summit is held to bring together the top financial ministers and find a way for them to coalesce around joint challenges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
What is true today, as potential bidders for the Dodgers lurk and coalesce amid L.A.’s turn at uncertainty, is that the Padres have an energetic and effervescent couple as their new principal owners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
What the polls generally failed to foresee—and arguably shouldn’t have been expected to, given the fluctuating field—was that just enough voters would ultimately coalesce behind Crowley to put him over the top.
From Slate ● Aug. 12, 2026
His supporting cast of Europe-based almost-stars will need to coalesce big time.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
Steam began to coalesce in a film of vapor on the upper reaches of the windows, closing the courtroom in a little, muffling the pale morning light.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
A cohort of skilled people coalesces, and the Junglekeepers nonprofit is born, taking donations for land acquisition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
But IndieWire's Caleb Hammond said: "While this version contains its fair share of standout sequences along with Oscar-ready performances, the film never fully coalesces into an effective, singular, emotional narrative."
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2024
But it coalesces around especially trendy aesthetics and a staunch desire to live responsibly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
The emotional peak of "The Last Supper" coalesces these notions in Carrie's address to her assembled guests.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2023
The group coalesces around the front-runners as Frederick and his pursuers get to their feet, all of them pasted with snow.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Opposition has also coalesced around religious appeals from a theologically diverse group of residents, leaders and politicians who see data center development as an affront to their most sacred values.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
Over the past few years, individual investors have coalesced into a market-moving force, upending hedge-fund bets, salvaging struggling companies and sending favored stocks straight to the moon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
Several of those donors then coalesced behind former Biden Cabinet member Xavier Becerra, who was struggling to connect with California voters before he surged to become a front-runner, recent opininon polls show.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
A wary Tinseltown reluctantly coalesced around the Netflix bid, seeing it as the lesser of two evils, but Paramount's willingness to stump up ever greater sums eventually saw the streamer withdraw.
From Barron's ● May 13, 2026
Somewhere in the air of her scream they coalesced.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
The rout in technology stocks last week has big investors who plan to participate in Anthropic’s IPO coalescing around a lower valuation for the artificial-intelligence giant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
He predicted AI safety coalescing with concerns around the data-center build-out, which is becoming a key sticking point for voters.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 11, 2026
Though tech funders appear to be coalescing around the Silicon Valley mayor, he is “not going to come out of the gate lighting the campaign on fire because no one knows him,” Acosta said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2026
At another, the brand's logo transforms into people's arms, before these morph into a coalescing swirl of bodies.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2025
The air over their heads churned and darkened, a cloud coalescing out of nowhere, gray and dense and gravid with rain.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
