Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Seeking and enjoying the company of others; sociable. synonym: social.
  • adjective Tending to move in or form a group with others of the same kind.
  • adjective Botany Growing in groups that are close together but not densely clustered or matted.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • By Drude and subsequent writers gregarious plants are further determined as growing in patches among other vegetation, thus contrasting with social species, which dominate the whole ground.
  • Disposed to live in flocks or herds; inclined to gather in companies; not preferring solitude or restricted companionship: as, cattle and sheep are gregarious animals; men are naturally gregarious.
  • In botany, growing in open clusters, not matted together.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Habitually living or moving in flocks or herds; tending to flock or herd together; not habitually solitary or living alone.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of a person Describing one who enjoys being in crowds and socializing.
  • adjective zoology Of animals that travel in herds or packs.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective instinctively or temperamentally seeking and enjoying the company of others
  • adjective (of plants) growing in groups that are close together
  • adjective (of animals) tending to form a group with others of the same species

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin gregārius, belonging to a flock, from grex, greg-, flock; see ger- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin gregārius.

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Examples

  • Kebron was the mortal enemy of the term "gregarious," likely to try and eliminate it from any dictionary in any language.

    Fire on High Peter David 1998

  • Kebron was the mortal enemy of the term "gregarious," likely to try and eliminate it from any dictionary in any language.

    Fire on High Peter David 1998

  • Kebron was the mortal enemy of the term "gregarious," likely to try and eliminate it from any dictionary in any language.

    Fire on High Peter David 1998

  • But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law '.

    Spilling the Beans in Paris and London 1994

  • But public opinion, because of the tremendous urge to conformity in gregarious animals, is less tolerant than any system of law.

    Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels 1946

  • His son, whom he described as a gregarious comic, was trying to support his 2-year-old daughter Aniyah, who lives with the West family and is being raised by her grandparents.

    Fore, right! < 2010

  • But during the last two years of the Bush administration, Bolton's successor, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, became known as a gregarious and affable diplomat who improved relations somewhat.

    HeraldNet.com Local, Sports, Business and Entertainment News 2009

  • On the one hand the novel is that friendly old beast, the late Victorian realist novel in English - gregarious, self-aware, pompous.

    Eve's Alexandria 2008

  • Garrigus - his name might as well be "gregarious" - was thankful, too, despite a tough way to lose.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • Garrigus - his name might as well be "gregarious" - was thankful, too, despite a tough way to lose.

    The Seattle Times 2011

Comments

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  • Sociable an enjoying the company of others

    July 8, 2014

  • to be likely to socialize with others

    Often we think that great leaders are those who are gregarious, always in the middle of a large group of people; yet, as Mahatma Gandhi and many others have shown us, leaders can also be introverted.

    October 11, 2016