Word of the Day Archive
Sunday May 12, 2002
gregarious \grih-GAIR-ee-us\
, adjective:
1. Tending to form a group with others of the same kind.
2. Seeking and enjoying the company of others.
True locusts, which are actually certain kinds of grasshoppers, are usually solitary and rather sluggish, but when they are crowded they enter a gregarious and highly active migratory phase.
-- Gilbert Waldbauer, Millions of Monarchs, Bunches of Beetles
In the newly discovered gene, the change of a single unit of DNA converts the worm from a solitary forager into a gregarious diner.
-- "Can Social Behavior of Man Be Glimpsed in a Lowly Worm?", New York Times, September 7, 1998
My efforts to cultivate an identity as a strong silent type have consistently been undermined by my gregarious nature and my delight in conversation.
-- Marty Jezer, Stuttering: A Life Bound Up in Words
Gregarious is from Latin gregarius, "belonging to a herd or flock," from grex, greg-, "herd, flock."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for gregarious
