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
Artyom Keydunov, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
When waves of Portuguese immigrants came to California in the latter half of the 20th century, many naturally gravitated toward work that reflected life on the islands: farming and fishing.
—Faith E. Pinho, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2024
Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Claudia Schiffer all gravitated toward the shade—and today’s It girls, such as Hailey Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski, and Dakota Johnson are no different.
—Beatrice Zocchi, Vogue, 28 Oct. 2024
Visitors gravitate to a spot that defines homegrown American musical ingenuity.
—Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 27 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for gravitate 
Dictionary Entries Near gravitate
Cite this Entry
“Gravitate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravitate. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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gravitate
verb
Medical Definition
gravitate
intransitive verb
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