Word of the Day

: October 10, 2017

gregarious

adjective grih-GAIR-ee-us

What It Means

1 a : tending to associate with others of one's kind : social

b : marked by or indicating a liking for companionship : sociable

c : of or relating to a social group

2 a : (of a plant) growing in a cluster or a colony

b : living in contiguous nests but not forming a true colony — used especially of wasps and bees

gregarious in Context

The documentary is filmed inside the burrows of the gregarious prairie dogs using high-tech equipment.

"Young players … don't feel close to him like they do an older player like Phil Mickelson, who has been a much more gregarious mentor." — Brian Wacker, Golf Digest, August 2017

Did You Know?

When you're one of the herd, it's tough to avoid being social. The etymology of gregarious reflects the social nature of the flock; in fact, the word grew out of the Latin noun grex, meaning "herd" or "flock." When it first began appearing in English texts in the 17th century, gregarious was applied mainly to animals, but by the 18th century it was being used for social human beings as well. By the way, grex gave English a whole flock of other words too, including egregious, aggregate, congregate, and segregate.