Word of the Day

: November 13, 2023

gravitate

verb GRAV-uh-tayt

What It Means

To gravitate is to move, tend to move, or be attracted to or toward someone or something.

// Many young people now gravitate toward careers on social media.

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gravitate in Context

“... Olipop has grown into a nationwide brand and favorite among Gen Z and millennial consumers, who gravitate to the brand’s eye-catching packaging and nostalgia-inducing flavors like root beer and vintage cola—many of which [CEO, Ben] Goodwin comes up with in the early hours of the morning.” — Morgan Smith and Lauren Shamo, CNBC, 16 Sept. 2023

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.”