Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week.
To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave the link as a comment on Heena’s WOW post for this week (above link). It’s a nice post to do and will give you some practice with a dictionary, of which there are several online. Illustrations are by no means necessary, but it’s up to you.
Here is my WOW for this week:
Word: Gregarious
Part of Speech: Adjective:
Adverb: gregariously
Noun: gregariousness
Pronunciation: gre·gar·i·ous (gri-gair-ee-uh s) (ɡrɪˈɡɛərɪəs)
Meaning:
1. Fond of the company of others; sociable
2. Living in flocks or herds, as animals.
Herd of cattle. Attribution: CSIRO
3. In botany: growing in open clusters or colonies but not matted together.
Gregarious moss phlox in Takinoue Park, Hokkaido. Commons: attribution Dr. Terra Khan
4. Pertaining to a flock or crowd.
Synonyms:
social, sociable, genial, outgoing, convivial, companionable, friendly, extroverted, clubby, clubable
- Antonyms:
antisocial, insociable, unsociable, unsocial, nongregarious, reclusive, solitary
Word Origin:
1660-70 < Latin gregārius belonging to a flock = equivalent to greg- (stem of grex) flock + -ārius -arious
Use in a sentence:
1. Jenny was a gregarious little girl who wanted to play with every child she met and be their friend.
2. The main problem with Martin was that his gregarious confidence vanished in social situations.
3. Flamingos are gregarious birds that do not do well in small flocks.
American Flamingos. Commons: Attribution Cliff from Arlington, Virginia, USA.
4. Gregarious behaviour benefits birds because it provides protection in numbers, giving individuals a better chance of survival.
Evening roost over woods. Commons: attribution Rob Farrow
Stinkbug lava on grass
Gregarious is a useful word to use in writing, and can easily be applied to our characters, as sentences 1 and 2 above show. I first came across the word when I was about eleven, when a teacher was explaining its use by referring to the behaviour of sheep. Like all herd animals, they simply need to keep together for safety. Safety in numbers, as they say.
If you’d like to check out more interesting words then visit Heena’s page:
Good word. I have a list of every new word I’ve learned since age sixteen. Closing in on 5000.
That’s impressive! You’re quite obviously a lover of words. I am, too, but I’ve never made a list like you. Well done! They must be wonderful to browse through now and them. 🙂
Any guesses at to what my first word on the list was?
It wasn’t gregarious, was it?
Nope. It was the word grotesque. I learned it from The Great Gatsby.
That’s a good word, too. I was doing a ‘g’ word this week – I’m going through the alphabet, you see. So next week I’ll find a nice ‘h’ word. The Great Gatsby must have really inspired you. It’s a great film.
Love the word and this gregarious post!
I’m glad you like the word, Ann. Whenever I say it I think of sheep, all following each other around. 🙂
Really enjoyed this post. Poor Martin – he does have a problem.
Thank you, Sharifah. I’m afraid that Martin really doesn’t function well in a crowd. 🙂
Nice post… 🙂
Thanks for this interesting word. Hopefully I’ll use it one day. Makes the language/wringing richer or better said enriches the writing! 😀
I think you do a wonderful job with the English language, Scrapydotwo. But If you pick up more words as you go along, that would be great. Thank you for liking my word. 🙂
Very interesting! (As always).
Thank you, PJ. 🙂
Wonderful words for us (humans) who need to be gregarious 😛
I love that word too. Great use of it is your post-beautiful images. 🙂
Thanks, Joycelin. I like this word and often use it. 🙂 (Just to let you know, I did the Inspiring Blogger post last week. I wasn’t sure whether the pingback worked!) Millie.
Oh, I did not see it – but then, I was overloaded with the cyclone and birthday and doctors etc.. Will try to look again. 🙂
I remember learning this word in Clue English. I may need to participate in a WoW myself!
I just love this word. 🙂
Thank you, Norma! It’s such a useful word too, in writing. 🙂
Such an interesting and useful word Millie! Thanks you for sharing it and also for participating 🙂
I’m gonna try and use this word today (as I’m gonna write a piece today.)
I love that pink moss 😀
Thank you, Heena. I find it a very useful word. 🙂
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