agglomeration

noun

ag·​glom·​er·​a·​tion ə-ˌglä-mə-ˈrā-shən 

1

: the action or process of collecting in a mass

the agglomeration of matter into stars and galaxies

2

: a heap or cluster of usually disparate (see disparate sense 1) elements

… an agglomeration of 100-year-old cottages with gingerbread scroll-saw ornamentation.

—Ira Henry Freeman

3

: a large, densely and contiguously populated area consisting of a city and its suburbs

an urban agglomeration

agglomerative

ə-ˈglä-mə-ˌrā-tiv 

adjective

Synonyms

• agglomerate
• alphabet soup
• assortment
• botch
• clutter
• collage
• crazy quilt
• farrago
• gallimaufry
• grab bag
• gumbo
• hash
• hodgepodge
• hotchpotch
• jambalaya
• jumble
• jungle
• litter
• macédoine
• medley
• mélange
• menagerie
• miscellanea
• miscellany
• mishmash
• mixed bag
• montage
• motley
• muddle
• olio
• olla podrida
• omnium-gatherum
• pastiche
• patchwork
• patchwork quilt
• potpourri
• ragbag
• ragout
• rummage
• salad
• salmagundi
• scramble
• shuffle
• smorgasbord
• stew
• tumble
• variety
• welter

Examples of agglomeration in a Sentence

This suburb has become just a vast agglomeration of houses, people, and cars.

the bedroom community became a vast agglomeration of houses, schools, and small shops

Recent Examples on the Web

For instance, policies that seem to favor urban populations, such as subsidies for electric vehicles, anger rural residents who see such handouts as evidence that the government favors wealthier people in large metropolitan agglomerations. —Marie Hyland, Foreign Affairs, 23 May 2024

That’s what’s in the news now, that very thing: the scraping of information without consent or compensation to create an agglomeration that machines plug into. —Matt Zoller Seitz, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2024

If the Kremlin’s forces can seize the important high ground in the area, an agglomeration of the largest cities in the Donbas region still under Ukrainian control would be threatened. —Marc Santora, New York Times, 21 Apr. 2024

Aguilar, who operates Border Town with his partner Amanda Rosa, grew up between the U.S. and Mexico, in the transborder agglomeration Calexico-Mexicali. —Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2024

About halfway through a six-week assembly process of mind-bending complexity, the equipment making up the tip of the iceberg is a house-size agglomeration of shiny metal tubes, opaque chambers, and wiring. —IEEE Spectrum, 5 Jan. 2018

As China experimented with markets and special economic zones in its coastal cities, agglomeration economies that resulted from the reduction of barriers to capital established themselves. —Simon Curtis and Ian Klaus, Foreign Affairs, 27 Nov. 2023

The latest spectacle, observed by the James Webb Space Telescope, is an agglomeration of nearly 150 free-floating objects amid the Orion Nebula, not far in mass from Jupiter. —Jonathan O’Callaghan, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2023

In the flesh, the document is an agglomeration of misinformation, platitudes and premasticated nostrums. —Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2023

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin agglomerātiōn-, agglomerātiō, from Latin agglomerāre "to agglomerate entry 1" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns

First Known Use

1661, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

agglomeration

noun

ag·​glom·​er·​a·​tion ə-ˌgläm-ə-ˈrā-shən 

1

: the action or process of collecting in a mass

2

: a heap or cluster of dissimilar elements

agglomerative

ə-ˈgläm-ə-ˌrāt-iv 

adjective