What does rejoin mean?
Rejoin means to join or come together again after a separation. The previous separation may be brief or prolonged, and it may involve people, activities, conversations, or routes. A person can rejoin a team after leaving it, a speaker can rejoin a discussion, or a traveller can rejoin a main road after taking a detour. The word is used in both formal and ordinary contexts and is similar in tone to reunite when referring to people, although rejoin is also widely applied to roads, paths, and other connections. It implies continuity with something already known: the person or route was once part of the group or course before becoming separate from it. Rejoin is consequently useful whenever returning to an established connection needs to be expressed clearly.
verbTo join or come together again after a period of separation. It can refer to returning to a group, activity, conversation, or route.
- To join again or return to a group, place, activity, or conversation after being apart.
- To come back onto a route or connect with another route after diverging from it.
"After the delay, the two trains rejoined the main line."
"After the interruption, he rejoined the discussion as if he had never left."
"The cyclists rejoin the path just beyond the village."
Rejoin can bring two routes back together, a conversation back to life, or a returning traveler back into the group.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does rejoin come from?
The English word rejoin was formed with the prefix re-, meaning “again,” and the verb join. The word join comes through Old French from Latin jungere, “to join or yoke.” Related English words such as conjoin, conjunct, and juncture preserve this same Latin root.
Related word forms
How rejoin is actually used
The word is neutral in register and can be transitive or intransitive. It normally implies an earlier separation and is often used for returning to a group, journey, conversation, or course of action.