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congregate

/ˈkɑːŋɡrɪɡeɪt//ˈkɒŋɡrɪɡeɪt/·verb
to come together in a crowd, usually of people acting of their own accord
Fig. 1 — I watch an empty square, and then people, arriving from every street at once.
01Definition

To congregate is for many people or animals to come together into a crowd in one place — usually of their own accord, and often for a shared purpose. From the Latin con- 'together' and grex, greg- 'flock' (the same root as gregarious and segregate). Students congregate in the courtyard; starlings congregate at dusk; protesters congregate in the square. It is intransitive — a crowd congregates on its own — and close to gather, but with a stronger sense of a mass assembling in one spot.

02In use
  • iStudents congregate in the courtyard between lectures, and the noise carries.
  • iiAt dusk, thousands of starlings congregate over the pier before they roost.
  • iiiDemonstrators began to congregate in the square long before the speeches started.
03Collocations
  • congregate in
  • congregate around
  • congregate for
  • a congregate setting
  • crowds congregate

Family congregation (noun) · congregated (adjective)

04Relations

=gather, assemble, convene, flock, mass

≠disperse, scatter, separate

05Compared
PairThe difference
congregate vs assemblegather people in order, often on a call, or fit parts together → assemble; people come together in a crowd of their own accord → congregate.
congregate vs clusterpack things or people into a tight, dense bunch by nearness → cluster; people come together in a crowd of their own accord → congregate.
congregate vs combinebring separate things together into one set (deliberately) → combine; people or animals gathering into a crowd on their own → congregate.
congregate vs come togetherseparate people unite into one, often in shared effort → come together; people crowd together of their own accord, still separate → congregate.
congregate vs consolidatepeople come together in a crowd of their own accord → congregate; combine scattered things into one stronger, firmer whole → consolidate.

Also compared with disband, disperse, dissipate, dissolve, gather, integrate, join, scatter, unite

06TOEFL & IELTS

Congregate is intransitive — a crowd congregates, but you cannot 'congregate people'; use gather or assemble to take an object. It pairs with in, at, around, or for. In public-health and social-policy writing, the attributive 'congregate setting' (or care/housing) means a facility where unrelated people live in close proximity — a shelter, a care home. The noun congregation most often names a religious body, but the verb itself is entirely neutral.

07Asked
What is a 'congregate setting'?
Here congregate is used as an adjective, not a verb: a congregate setting is a place where numbers of unrelated people live, stay, or work in close proximity, sharing common spaces — care homes, prisons, shelters, dormitories. The term is common in public-health writing about how illness spreads. 'Congregate housing' is a narrower housing-code sense: apartments for older adults with shared dining.
What is the difference between congregate and gather?
Gather is broad and can take an object — you gather evidence, or gather people together. Congregate is intransitive and describes a crowd assembling of its own accord, usually in one place for a shared reason: the crowd in the scene above congregates on its own. You gather a group; a group congregates.
Which preposition goes with congregate?
Most often in or at a place (congregate in the hall, at the gate), around a focal point (congregate around a speaker), or for an event (congregate for the ceremony). Because it is intransitive, there is never a direct object right after it — people congregate somewhere, they do not 'congregate something'.
What is the difference between 'congregate' and 'congregation'?
Congregate is the verb — the act of coming together. Congregation is the noun — the assembled group itself, and especially the body of people at a religious service. Both grow from the Latin grex, 'flock', which also gives gregarious (sociable) and segregate (to set the flock apart).
How do you pronounce congregate?
CON-gre-gate (/ˈkɑːŋɡrɪɡeɪt/) — stress firmly on the first syllable, and the -gate ending keeps its full 'gate' sound (a long /eɪt/), not the reduced ending some -ate words take. Three syllables: CON-gruh-gayt. The British first vowel is a rounder /ɒ/.
Does 'congregate' have to be religious?
No — the verb is neutral and secular. Crowds, birds, fans, and protesters all congregate with no religious sense at all. The church association lives only in the noun congregation (a body of worshippers). So 'the pigeons congregate on the roof' is perfectly ordinary English.