gravitate
verb
Rose Friedman
Did you know?
The force is strong in the family of words descended from the Latin adjective gravis, meaning “heavy”: gravitation has it, graviton has it, and gravitate has it, too. That force is gravity (gravity being another gravis descendent), a fundamental physical force that is responsible for bringing us literally back down to earth (or Tattooine, as it were). But you don’t have to be a full-fledged linguistic Jedi, young padawan, to know that gravity, like its Latin ancestor, also has figurative meanings, as does gravitate. When it first landed in the 17th century, gravitate meant “to apply pressure or weight,” and later it maintained its connection to literal gravity with a sense (still in use today) meaning “to move under the effect of gravitation.” It then, however, acquired a more general sense of “to move toward something” (such as toward a specific location), and finally a metaphorical sense of “to be attracted,” as in, “when choosing movies to watch she often gravitates toward space operas.”
Examples of gravitate in a Sentence
Siobhan Reid, Travel + Leisure, 30 May 2025
Despite this, some fans still gravitate toward the character as a hero.
—Jeremy Hanna, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 May 2025
Everyone really does gravitate toward nostalgia, memory-inducing aromas, and especially those that evoke reminders from summers past.
—Danielle Sinay, Glamour, 28 May 2025
Meanwhile, the lexical field around the second part gravitated around effervescent feelings and light in the designs developed by Vuitton’s high jewelry studio under the direction of Francesca Amfitheatrof, who exited her role as artistic director of watches and jewelry in March.
—Lily Templeton, Footwear News, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for gravitate
Cite this Entry
“Gravitate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravitate. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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gravitate
verb
Medical Definition
gravitate
intransitive verb
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