gravitate

verb

grav·​i·​tate ˈgra-və-ˌtāt 

gravitated; gravitating

intransitive verb

1

: to move under the influence of gravitation

2

a

: to move toward something

b

: to be drawn or attracted especially by natural inclination

youngsters … gravitate toward a strong leader

—Rose Friedman

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.”

Examples of gravitate in a Sentence

The guests gravitated toward the far side of the room.

The conversation gravitated to politics.

Voters have started gravitating to him as a possible candidate.

Many young people now gravitate toward careers in the computer industry.

Recent Examples on the Web

Data teams needing to solve the problem are gravitating toward a new solution called modern cloud OLAP. —Artyom Keydunov, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024

When waves of Portuguese immigrants came to California in the latter half of the 20th century, many naturally gravitated toward work that reflected life on the islands: farming and fishing. —Faith E. Pinho, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2024

Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Claudia Schiffer all gravitated toward the shade—and today’s It girls, such as Hailey Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski, and Dakota Johnson are no different. —Beatrice Zocchi, Vogue, 28 Oct. 2024

Visitors gravitate to a spot that defines homegrown American musical ingenuity. —Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 27 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin gravitātus, past participle of gravitāre "to exert weight or pressure, move downward by its own weight," from Latin gravis "heavy" + -itāre, iterative and intensive suffix (here perhaps taken as a semantically neutral verb formative) — more at grave entry 2

Note: The derivation has likely been influenced by partial phonetic overlap with gravitāt-, gravitās gravity.

First Known Use

1692, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

gravitate

verb

grav·​i·​tate ˈgrav-ə-ˌtāt 

gravitated; gravitating

: to move or tend to move toward something

Medical Definition

gravitate

intransitive verb

grav·​i·​tate ˈgrav-ə-ˌtāt 

gravitated; gravitating

: to move under the influence of gravitation