amass
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to gather for oneself; collect as one's own.
to amass a huge amount of money.
- Synonyms:
- accumulate
-
to collect into a mass or pile; gather.
He amassed his papers for his memoirs.
verb (used without object)
verb
-
(tr) to accumulate or collect (esp riches, etc)
-
to gather in a heap; bring together
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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have amassedperfect
-
has amassedperfect 3rd person singular
-
is amassingprogressive 3rd person singular
-
am amassingprogressive 1st person singular
-
has been amassingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
-
have been amassingperfect progressive
-
are amassingprogressive
-
amassingparticiple
-
amassessingular 3rd person
Past
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had amassedperfect
-
were amassingprogressive plural
-
amassedparticiple
-
had been amassingperfect progressive
-
amassedsimple
-
was amassingprogressive singular
Future
Etymology
Origin of amass
First recorded in 1475–85; from French amasser, equivalent to a- a- 5 ( def. ) + masse mass ( def. ) + -er, infinitive suffix
Explanation
Amass means bring together or assemble. It can be a real shock to enter a room and see your amassed friends shouting "Surprise!" Although the word amass should not be confused with "a mass," as in the thing you never want to hear has been found on your lung, they both derive from the Latin massa "lump." When you think about it, this makes sense. Whether soldiers or cancer cells, things that come together to form a whole — in this case, a tumor or an army — are amassed.
Vocabulary lists containing amass
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
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Promises to Keep
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A Very Large Expanse of Sea
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
