Word of the Day:

September 16, 2022

coalesce

verb koh-uh-LESS

What it Means

Coalesce means “to come together to form one group or mass” or “to join forces.”

// The club's community service projects provide students with a common goal to coalesce around.

// The ice masses coalesced into a glacier over time.

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Coalesce in Context

“This is European soccer—or, at least, an idealized version of it: clubs that represent something greater than themselves, offering communities narratives to coalesce around.” — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 28 May 2022

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Did You Know?

The meaning of many English words equals the sum of their parts, and coalesce is a fitting example. The word unites the prefix co- (“together”) and the Latin verb alescere, meaning “to grow.” Coalesce is one of a number of English verbs (along with mix, commingle, merge, and amalgamate) that refer to the act of combining parts into a whole. In particular, coalesce usually implies the merging of similar parts to form a cohesive unit, such as a political ideology, a fan-following, or (perish the thought) a Portuguese man-of-war, the body of which includes three types of zooids.