gathering

C1 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈɡæð.ɚ.ɪŋ/ UK /ˈɡæð.ə.ɹɪŋ/ See IPA manual

Freq #4987

Meanings

1

noun
A meeting of people, often for a social or special occasion.

I met her at a gathering of engineers and scientists.
2

noun
The act of collecting things together.

The gathering of the harvest takes several weeks.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a meeting of people, often... assembly assemblage

2 noun · the act of collecting... gather

Word family

Forms gatherings

Derived forms evidence-gatheringintelligence-gatheringnewsgatheringtaxgatheringwoolgathering

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

social gathering
an occasion bringing people together to meet and interact

Adjective + noun

Etymology

From Middle English gadering, from Old English gaderung (“gathering, assembly”), equivalent to gather + -ing (verbal noun ending).

gadering Middle English gaderung Old English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# gathering

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈɡæð.ɚ.ɪŋ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈɡæð.ə.ɹɪŋ/
**Frequency rank:** 4987

## Meanings
1. A meeting of people, often for a social or special occasion.
2. The act of collecting things together.

## Examples
- I met her at a gathering of engineers and scientists.
- The gathering of the harvest takes several weeks.

## Derived Forms
- evidence-gathering
- intelligence-gathering
- newsgathering
- taxgathering
- woolgathering

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: gadering
- Root: gaderung

## Etymology
From Middle English gadering, from Old English gaderung (“gathering, assembly”), equivalent to gather + -ing (verbal noun ending).

## AI Etymology
Gathering comes from Middle English gadering, from Old English gaderung (“gathering, assembly”), equivalent to gather + -ing (verbal noun ending). The historical chain includes gadering (Middle English) and gaderung (Old English). The surrounding word family includes derived forms such as evidence-gathering, intelligence-gathering, newsgathering, and taxgathering. In present use it covers a meeting of people, often for a social or special occasion and the act of collecting things together.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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