gathering

1 a body of people come together in one place the President spoke before the gathering of student leaders Synonyms assemblage, assembly, conference, congregation, convocation, ingathering, meeting, muster Related Words company, consort, coterie, gang, pack; caucus, forum, market, panel, rally, symposium, synod; audience, gallery, grandstand, house; crowd, flock, horde, legion, multitude, press, swarm, throng; crush, mob, rabble, rabblement

2 a coming together of a number of persons for a specified purpose attended a gathering for descendants of people who came to America on the Mayflower Synonyms assembly, congress, convention, convocation, council, meeting, get-together, huddle, powwowRelated Words clinic, workshop; cabinet, caucus, conclave, synod; demonstration, rally; confab, conversation, dialogue (also dialog), discourse, discussion, palaver, talk; negotiation, parley, summit; conference, forum, round-robin, roundtable, seminar, symposium; audience, interview, session

3 a mass or quantity that has piled up or that has been gathered over a period of time a great gathering of dust under the bed Synonyms accretion, assemblage, collection, cumulation, cumulus, accumulation, lodgment (or lodgement), pileupRelated Words agglomerate, assortment, congeries, conglomerate, conglomeration, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, jumble, medley, mélange, mishmash, mix, mixture, motley, potpourri; agglomeration, clutter, hash, heap, litter, mass, pile; aggregate, aggregation, sum, totality; backlog, cache, fund, hoard, inventory, kitty, nest egg, reserve, stock, stockpile, store, supply