commingle

verb com·min·gle \ kə-ˈmiŋ-gəl , kä- \

Updated on: 9 May 2018

Definition of commingle

transitive verb

1 : to blend thoroughly into a harmonious whole

… that fine and funny book, in which horror and laughter are commingled …
—William Styron

2 : to combine (funds or properties) into a common fund or stock

Proceeds from the sale have been commingled with other funds.

intransitive verb

: to become commingled

See commingle defined for English-language learners

See commingle defined for kids

Examples of commingle in a Sentence

Fact and fiction commingle in the story.
He commingled his personal funds with money from the business.

Recent Examples of commingle from the Web

But because tomatoes from many farms get commingled at packing houses and then sorted for similarity of ripeness, size and color, that four-pack could contain tomatoes from four different farms.

— maryn mckenna, WIRED, "The Fix for E. Coli Outbreaks Could Be ... the Blockchain," 28 Apr. 2018
The air fills with the tantalizing smell of star anise and ginger, shrimp shells and pork ribs, commingling in a pressure cooker.

— devra first, BostonGlobe.com, "Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Noodle Soup? Cricket Noodle Soup? Noodle soup cocktails?," 23 Apr. 2018
Campaigns and independent expenditure groups are banned from coordinating their activities or commingling funds.

— San Francisco Chronicle, "Billionaires’ dollars fund big ad buy for Antonio Villaraigosa," 19 Apr. 2018
When the rainwater is commingled with it, it is rendered kosher and ready.

— kristin e. holmes, Philly.com, "A mikvah building boomlet as Jewish ritual baths open around the region," 12 Apr. 2018
Prosecutors claim Kniss commingled investor money that was supposed to go into separate funds; used new investor money to pay off early investors, a classic hallmark of a Ponzi scheme; and helped himself to his customers' money.

— jeff manning, OregonLive.com, "Founder of wildly unsuccessful Iris Capital accused of fraud," 5 Apr. 2018
The ideal way to eat this is to commingle the ingredients, even mashing up the foie, as counterintuitive as that seems.

— phil vettel, chicagotribune.com, "S.K.Y. restaurant soaring after rough start," 30 Mar. 2018
Then, early last year, investigators confirmed that many commingled human remains have been found in just a single corner of the seven-acre site, where a subsidized housing project had long since replaced the old mother-and-baby home.

— dan barry, New York Times, "Agonizing Question for Irish: What to Do With Children’s Remains?," 13 Jan. 2018
McDonagh’s dialogue freely commingles wry knucklehead wit with fatalist musings on mortality and the Great Beyond.

— charles bramesco, New York Times, "The Little Lebowskis: 10 Righteous Heirs to a Coen Brothers’ Classic," 6 Mar. 2018

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

Origin and Etymology of commingle

see mingle

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1612

in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

See Words from the same year

commingle Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of commingle

mix, mingle, commingle, blend, merge, coalesce, amalgamate, fuse mean to combine into a more or less uniform whole. mix may or may not imply loss of each element's identity.