amalgam
Americannoun
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an alloy of mercury with another metal or metals.
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an alloy that consists chiefly of silver mixed with mercury and variable amounts of other metals and is used as a dental filling.
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a rare mineral, an alloy of silver and mercury, occurring as silver-white crystals or grains.
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a mixture or combination.
His character is a strange amalgam of contradictory traits.
noun
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an alloy of mercury with another metal, esp with silver
dental amalgam
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a rare white metallic mineral that consists of silver and mercury and occurs in deposits of silver and cinnabar
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a blend or combination
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An alloy of mercury and another metal, especially:
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An alloy of mercury and silver used in dental fillings.
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An alloy of silver and tin used in silvering mirrors.
Etymology
Origin of amalgam
1425–75; late Middle English amalgam ( e ) < Middle French < Medieval Latin < dialectal Arabic al the + malgham < Greek málagma softening agent, equivalent to malak- (stem of malássein to soften) + -ma noun suffix
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.
A beatnik radio host caught the Mets bug and praised baseball as a “kind of amalgam of all the human frustrations.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 27, 2026
Nations meeting in Geneva agreed "to end the use of dental amalgam by 2034, marking a historic milestone in reducing mercury pollution", the conference announced in its closing statement.
From Barron's • Nov. 7, 2025
Last month, an amalgam of Celtic fans' groups called the Celtic Fan Collective had a meeting with some key people at the club and they asked if Rodgers had the final say on all players.
From BBC • Oct. 28, 2025
For Wolf Jackson, the dead tough-guy actor in the blockbuster “Beetlejuice” sequel, Dafoe referenced an amalgam of TV detectives and couldn’t resist going for “the Jack Lord hair.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 31, 2024
It is precisely this quality that makes facts the raw material of science, for science, too, is a peculiar amalgam of the real and the cultural.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
