agglomerate
Americanverb (used with or without object)
adjective
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gathered together into a cluster or mass.
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Botany. crowded into a dense cluster, but not cohering.
noun
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a mass of things clustered together.
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rock composed of rounded or angular volcanic fragments.
verb
noun
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a confused mass
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a rock consisting of angular fragments of volcanic lava Compare conglomerate
adjective
Usage
What does agglomerate mean? Agglomerate means to collect or gather into a cluster or mass, especially a messy or jumbled one. As a verb, agglomerate is typically used in a passive way (as opposed to someone doing the agglomerating), as in Much of the garbage in the ocean has agglomerated into a giant floating mass. The process of agglomerating is called agglomeration. Agglomeration can also refer to a messy cluster or jumbled collection of various elements. Agglomeration is often used to refer to groupings of miscellaneous things—such as various types of objects or even people—into a single (though often somewhat messy) unit. Agglomerate can also be used as a noun to mean the same thing. The similar word conglomerate can be used in many of the same ways that agglomerate can, but it doesn’t doesn’t always imply a sense of messiness like agglomerate does. And conglomerate is most commonly used as a noun meaning a large corporation consisting of many companies. Agglomerate can also be used as an adjective to describe things gathered together into a jumbled mass, as in My desk has become an agglomerate mess. It can also be used in a few more specific ways. In botany, it’s used as an adjective to describe plant parts that are crowded into a dense cluster but not fully connected. In geology, it’s used as a noun referring to a type of rock composed of volcanic fragments. Example: I forgot that the art project was due today, so my collage is really just an agglomerate of things I found around the house.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of agglomerate
1675–85; < Latin agglomerātus (past participle of agglomerāre ), equivalent to ag- ag- + glomer- (stem of glomus ball of yarn) + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
When things agglomerate, they gather together into a cluster or a group. In some states, people tend to agglomerate into cities, leaving rural areas sparsely populated. You might come across the verb agglomerate in business news — moguls tend to agglomerate companies, collecting them under one controlling interest. You could also describe a website that agglomerates news items, gathering them all into one place. The Latin root word is agglomerare, "to wind or add onto a ball," from ad, "to," and glomerare, "ball of yarn."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
New technologies often agglomerate, or cluster, in a specific geographic area, whether it’s the auto industry in Detroit, the movie business in Los Angeles, or previous tech booms in the Bay Area.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Ideas don’t develop — they agglomerate in a repetitive, undifferentiated jumble, and the power they might have drains away.
From New York Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
The virus makes countless copies of Ralph himself, which eventually agglomerate to become a Ralphzilla that destroys the web’s infrastructure in pursuit of trapping Vanellope in their relationship.
From Slate ● Dec. 4, 2018
Ross, 79, billionaire investor known for aggressive moves to agglomerate and sell failing steel- and coal-industry interests.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 3, 2017
This view, that the agglomerate of earth and water was not a perfect sphere, was universally accepted in the later Middle Ages, and the new cosmography required its refutation.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
“That level of agglomerated industry working together,” he said, “you don’t see that in Europe.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
The old model of urban economics, agglomerated vertically in a clutch of downtown skyscrapers, has gradually ceded to a broader vision of mobility, remote access and live-work neighborhoods.
From New York Times ● Sep. 8, 2021
To increase efficiency, hedgerows and copses have been eliminated and farmland agglomerated into increasingly larger tracts of monoculture.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 10, 2019
For centuries, wars reallocated huge territories, as empires were agglomerated or dismantled and states wiped off the map.
From New York Times ● Dec. 18, 2011
According to him, a confluence of atoms round a spherical centre of attraction, would cause the agglomerated mass to revolve upon its axis in the manner of our earth.
From An Expository Outline of the "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" With a Notice of the Author's "Explanations:" A Sequel to the Vestiges by Anonymous
Taken together, they depict a wildly aspirational luxury metropolis that seems to have tipped over without warning into “Blade Runner” dystopia, a city agglomerating by algorithm, recalling a line from J.G.
From New York Times ● Nov. 12, 2021
That’s because it runs counter to Facebook’s long history of agglomerating as much user data as it can, from wherever it can find it.
From Slate ● Feb. 27, 2019
The temptation is to see it as two geniuses with a galaxy of stars agglomerating around them.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 1, 2013
And by agglomerating that kind of data together on a roadway, in a forest, wherever, what have you, you're able to create this, kind of, very rich picture of the world.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 5, 2011
The qualities that a good agglomerating machine should present are as follows: 1.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 360, November 25, 1882 by Various
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.
