Amalgamation

How to spell amalgamation

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce amalgamation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amalgamation mean?

1. nounThe action or result of combining or uniting separate things, organisations, or groups into one whole.

Amalgamation in a sentence

• The amalgamation of the two banks created the largest lender in the region.

• Local councils opposed the amalgamation of their districts into a single authority.

Where does amalgamation come from?

Language of origin: Arabic

This word grows out of 'amalgam', which began as a term in medieval alchemy for a soft alloy of mercury with another metal. The form passed into English through Medieval Latin 'amalgama', and most scholars trace it back to the Arabic 'al-malgham' meaning roughly 'the emollient' or 'the softening paste', the 'al-' being the Arabic definite article 'the'. Behind the Arabic may lie the Greek 'malagma', a softening poultice, from 'malassein' meaning 'to soften'. From the literal chemical mixing of metals, English speakers from the 1600s onward stretched the sense to cover any blending or merging of separate things into one, and 'amalgamation' became the formal noun for that act of combining. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle 'gam', easily lost between the heavy 'amal-' opening and the '-ation' ending, plus the single 'm' that some writers wrongly double.

How the word is built

• amalgam (a blend or alloy)
• -ation (noun of action)