aggregate

adjective

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ag·gre·gate | \ ˈa-gri-gət

Definition of aggregate

(Entry 1 of 3)

: formed by the collection of units or particles into a body, mass, or amount : collective: such as

a(1) : clustered in a dense mass or head an aggregate flower

(2) : formed from several separate ovaries of a single flower aggregate fruit

b : composed of mineral crystals of one or more kinds or of mineral rock fragments

c : taking all units as a whole aggregate sales

aggregate

verb

ag·gre·gate | \ ˈa-gri-ˌgāt

aggregated; aggregating

Definition of aggregate (Entry 2 of 3)

transitive verb

1 : to collect or gather into a mass or whole The census data were aggregated by gender.

2 : to amount to (a whole sum or total) : total audiences aggregating several million people

aggregate

noun

ag·gre·gate | \ ˈa-gri-gət

Definition of aggregate (Entry 3 of 3)

1 : a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another Froth is an aggregate of tiny bubbles.

2 : the whole sum or amount : sum total spent an aggregate of 10 million dollars in advertising during the past three years

3a : a rock composed of mineral crystals of one or more kinds or of mineral rock fragments : an aggregate rock

b : any of several hard inert materials (such as sand, gravel, or slag) used for mixing with a cementing material to form concrete, mortar, or plaster

c : a clustered mass of individual soil particles varied in shape, ranging in size from a microscopic granule to a small crumb, and considered the basic structural unit of soil

4 : set sense 21

5 : monetary aggregate

in the aggregate

: considered as a whole : collectively Dividends for the year amounted in the aggregate to 25 million dollars.

Other Words from aggregate Synonyms Did you know? More Example Sentences Phrases Containing aggregate Learn More About aggregate

Did you know?

We added aggregate to our flock of Latin borrowings in the 15th century. It descends from aggregāre ("to cause to flock together" or "to join together"), a Latin verb made up of the prefix ad- (which means "to," and which usually changes to ag- before a g) and greg- or grex (meaning "flock, herd, or group"). Greg- also gave us congregate, gregarious, and segregate. Aggregate is commonly employed in the phrase "in the aggregate," which means "considered as a whole." Aggregate also has some specialized senses. For example, it is used to describe a mass of minerals formed into a rock, and materials like sand or gravel that are used to form concrete, mortar, or plaster.

Examples of aggregate in a Sentence

Adjective There were to be thirty-seven playgrounds, twenty schools. There were to be a hundred and thirty-three miles of street, paved with an inch and a half of No. 2 macadam on an aggregate base. — Joan Didion, New Yorker, 26 July 1993 Their success at opening up new sources of supply, generating and servicing demand, and connecting new markets with the processing industries of the Amsterdam entrepôt seemed … to belie the axiom of an inelastic aggregate volume of world trade—a zero-sum competition. — Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches, 1988 The mulberry looks a bit like a raspberry. But the raspberry (along with the other brambles, members of the genus Rubus, such as the blackberry) is an aggregate fruit generated by a single, if complex, flower. — Raymond Sokolov, Natural History, October 1986 With Keynes, standard theory conceded that disequilibria might intrude upon the economy as a whole, but it held that these could be remedied by judicious stabilization of aggregate demand—that is, combined government and consumer purchasing power. — Robert Kuttner, Atlantic, February 1985 The university receives more than half its aggregate income from government sources. The team with the highest aggregate score wins. Verb The problem, in this case, is that the synergy creates incentives for segregation. Ethnic advertisers scour the TV schedule for shows and channels that "aggregate" viewers of the type the client wants to reach … — Tamar Jacoby, New Republic, 24 Jan. 2000 "We are good at aggregating eyeballs and delivering services," says Barry Schuler, the president of AOL Interactive Services, "and the Time Warner deal is a natural extension of that." — Barry Schuler, Fortune, 7 Feb. 2000 Pollsters, for the most part, know perfectly well what they are doing. One thing they are doing is aggregating and averaging ephemeral spasms of "mood" that may have commercial or political value. — Christopher Hitchens, Harper's, April 1992 … covered only if each of the corporations involved has capital, surplus and undivided profits aggregating more than $10 million … — Joe Sims et al., National Law Journal, 28 Jan. 1991 The website aggregates content from many other sites. over time, her petty thefts aggregated a significant shortfall in the company's books Noun In particular, a core of popular politically minded blogs known in the aggregate as the Blogosphere has been a beehive of furious activity. Or should I say a wasp's nest? — Steven Levy, Newsweek, 4 Oct. 2004 It's true that our lives are the aggregate of a lot of little things, that's precisely why, at least once a year, we need to ride the wave of something bigger and bolder than our own little humdrum existence. — Will Manley, Booklist, 1 Sept. 2002 Smallness of enterprises, as in the Japanese bicycle-manufacturing development, is an asset because smallness cuts down administrative and other overhead costs both in individual enterprises and in the aggregate, in comparison with the overhead costs of large operations. — Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations, (1984) 1985 numerous episodes of pilferage, taken in the aggregate, can really add up to a significant sum See More

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective His aggregate score of 128 set a tournament record for 36 holes and his lead matched the tournament record for 36 holes. — Ron Kroichick, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Feb. 2022 The Timbers have won four of five all-time matches against NYCFC, including the last three by an aggregate score of 5-0. — oregonlive, 10 Dec. 2021 The last three defeats have come by an aggregate score of 113-17, including 52-7 in 2018 and 30-3 in 2019. — Creg Stephenson | Cstephenson@al.com, al, 13 Nov. 2021 For starters, the final score of any single game between two teams could owe more to luck or variability than the aggregate score of a 180-minute cup tie. — Ian Nicholas Quillen, Forbes, 6 Apr. 2021 Any single jurisdiction opposing a project can easily sink years of coordination and planning work – even if the aggregate effect of this tunnel vision harms everyone. — Energy Innovation: Policy And Technology, Forbes, 16 June 2021 Some have been stirred to action by the aggregate effect of Covid, extreme political dysfunction and stark inequalities in wealth, health and race. — Lucy Alexander, Robb Report, 17 Apr. 2021 Our six-person panel of experts has aggregate win-loss projections for every team. — Editors, USA TODAY, 17 Feb. 2021 This approach, though, can invite false inferences about individuals based on aggregate group data. — Will Van Sant, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2022 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb After the market close in China, June aggregate financing was released, exceeding expectations. — Brendan Ahern, Forbes, 11 July 2022 To get ahead, try to find a Money Transfer API company that can aggregate services through their platform, in which API plays a vital role. — Yec, Forbes, 6 July 2022 Locals have long become accustomed to periodic loud quarry blasts coming from the interior of the peninsula, as well as the elevated conveyor that transports aggregate rock across Main Street to awaiting ships docked on the lake. — Susan Glaser, cleveland, 26 May 2022 The total of the consumers’ and merchants’ surplus depends on price elasticity of the market aggregate consumer demand. — Norbert Michel, Forbes, 17 May 2022 Emerging technologies will also help financial institutions aggregate and analyze significantly more data than in the past by using machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), analytics tools and data science. — Nicolas Fleuret, Forbes, 21 June 2022 Allen stressed that participant privacy is being built into the study design: Several steps are taken to summarize and aggregate data so that neither Google nor researchers see data about individuals. — Mario Aguilar, STAT, 24 May 2022 The information, Tabor says, is anonymized and securely shared only with university researchers, who aggregate and analyze the data and publish their findings. — B.k. Jackson, Wired, 15 Mar. 2022 Recently the company has begun helping its growers to aggregate and sell items from other local farms and artisans—anything from eggs to tea to sourdough bread—since larger order sizes help justify the cost of home delivery. — Elizabeth G. Dunn, WSJ, 7 May 2021 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun And while the cost of goods and services in aggregate is up, the cost of consumer goods and services marketed specifically to women is growing twice as fast as those marketed to men: 4.15% YOY compared to 2.2% YOY, respectively. — Katica Roy, Fortune, 4 Aug. 2022 On their commitments to reducing emissions in their lending portfolios to zero, the banks, in aggregate, came in at 20%. — Ed Davey, ajc, 28 July 2022 While many individual households are struggling, U.S. consumers still have approximately $2 trillion in savings from the pandemic in aggregate, PNC chief economist Gus Faucher said. — Rob Wile, NBC News, 27 July 2022 With gun laws, too, researchers are beginning to look at the effects of policies in aggregate, says Garen Wintemute, emergency physician and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis. — Lydia Denworth, Scientific American, 18 July 2022 These different goals will point to unique approaches to analyzing data. Adding AI to BI data moved analytics from looking at the past in aggregate to predicting the future of an individual customer and highlighting marketing opportunities. — Zohar Bronfman, Forbes, 1 July 2022 Allowing ratings to be anonymous and shown only in aggregate can allow people to be more candid, especially for interactions in which buyers and sellers are working closely together. — Michael Luca, WSJ, 17 June 2022 The mix of symptoms and experiences that define long COVID suggests that no single measure, or group of measures, can illustrate the suffering of long-haulers in aggregate. — Benjamin Mazer, The Atlantic, 15 June 2022 The fact that Black and Hispanic Americans die at higher rates due to traffic accidents yet bike and walk fewer miles in aggregate is a problem in itself, Choma told ABC News. — Amanda Su, ABC News, 13 June 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'aggregate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of aggregate

Adjective

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

History and Etymology for aggregate

Adjective

Middle English aggregat, borrowed from Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre "to cause to flock together, join, include, lump together," from ad- ad- + -gregāre, verbal derivative of greg-, grex "flock, herd, group" — more at gregarious

Verb

Middle English aggregaten, borrowed from Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre "to cause to flock together, join" — more at aggregate entry 1

Noun

Middle English aggregat, borrowed from Medieval Latin aggregātus, noun derivative of Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre "to cause to flock together, join" — more at aggregate entry 1