gregarious
- 1Enjoying being among crowds of people and socializing with them.
Her gregarious uncle knew half the guests at the wedding within an hour.
He is gregarious by nature and hates spending an evening at home alone.
Similarsociable, outgoing, convivial, extroverted
Oppositeshy, reserved, introverted, unsociable
- 2Living, moving or tending to gather in flocks, herds or crowds rather than alone.
Zebras are gregarious animals that graze and migrate in large herds.
Unlike the wolf, the leopard is not gregarious and hunts on its own.
Similarsocial
Oppositesolitary
Note
In zoology the word names a way of life rather than a mood, and its usual opposite is solitary. Writers have long let the two meet: Ishmael, the narrator of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851), says the fin-back whale is not gregarious and calls him a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters, so the animal sense shades into the sociable human meaning.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick, first published in 1851. en.wikipedia.org
- The novel describes the fin-back as not gregarious and compares its apparent hatred of whales to human misanthropy. gutenberg.org
- The characterization belongs to Ishmael, the novel's narrator; Herman Melville is its author. en.wikipedia.org
- 3Growing in open clusters or colonies rather than matted together.
The orchid is gregarious, forming open colonies on shady limestone slopes.
Unlike the matted moss beside it, this wildflower is gregarious, growing in open clusters along the bank.
Note
The botanist's use keeps the clusters loose. A gregarious plant grows near others of its kind, in colonies or scattered groups with space between them; a dense mat or carpet of growth is not gregarious, however crowded it looks. The qualification is the whole point, since crowding alone does not earn the word.
Practice
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Origin
Borrowed from Latin gregārius, with the ending -ious; it was in English use by 1678.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Gregarious was borrowed from Latin gregārius. en.wiktionary.org
- The borrowing has the English ending -ious. en.wiktionary.org
- It was already used in the 1678 English edition of Francis Willughby's Ornithology, translated by John Ray, page 15. The exact first-attestation date remains unconfirmed. archive.org