Come together and dissolve are opposites. Come together is the plain phrase for separate people or things uniting, often in a shared effort. Dissolve is for a solid to break down into a liquid, or for a body like a company, parliament or marriage to be formally ended. Come together forms or unites a body; dissolve breaks one down until nothing stands.
One draws people or things into one; the other breaks a body down. Come together is the everyday phrase for uniting — a team, a partnership, a plan. Dissolve, from dis- 'apart' and solvere 'to loosen', ends a body — a company, a parliament, a marriage — or lets a solid lose its shape into a liquid. Two firms come together as a partnership; years later it is dissolved. One unites into a body; the other loosens a body apart.
come together
To come together is for separate people or things to move into one — to unite, converge, or combine — often after being apart or at odds. It is the plain, warm counterpart to its Latinate synonyms: where a committee might 'convene', friends, teams and communities simply come together. The sense is usually of willed, cooperative union: people come together in a crisis, a plan comes together, a band comes together. As a phrasal verb it is intransitive (people come together); the related noun is a get-together or a coming-together.
dissolve
To dissolve is for a solid to break apart into a liquid until it disappears into it — sugar dissolves in water — or, by extension, for something to fade out or be formally ended (a marriage, a company, a parliament is dissolved). From the Latin dissolvere, 'to loosen apart', from solvere 'to loosen', the root of solve and solvent. A substance dissolves when its particles separate and spread evenly through the liquid — the reverse of what happens when droplets coalesce. Governments dissolve; tension dissolves; a crowd can dissolve into laughter.
| come together | dissolve | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | unite into one, often in shared effort | break down into liquid; formally end |
| Direction | several into one | one into none (loses its shape) |
| Feel | united, often warm | formal (organizations); everyday (solids) |
| Often with | people, a team, a partnership, a plan | sugar, parliament, a company, a marriage |
| Noun | (a) coming together | dissolution |
| Example | The partners came together. | The partnership was dissolved. |
Ask whether a body forms or is broken down. Come together draws separate people or things into one — players closing into a ring. Dissolve loosens a body apart until nothing stands — a sugar cube clouding away, a partnership ended. If people or things unite into a body, they come together; if a body breaks down or is formally ended, that is dissolve.
come together
- iThe whole town came together to rebuild the school.
- iiThe two firms came together as one partnership.
- iiiTheir ideas came together into a single plan.
dissolve
- iThe partnership was dissolved after thirty years.
- iiThe prime minister asked the monarch to dissolve parliament.
- iiiStir until the sugar dissolves completely.
Come together is plain and often warm, about people or things uniting into a body; dissolve is the formal ending of such a body (or a solid breaking down in liquid). A partnership comes together and is later dissolved — the two mark its start and its legal end.