amalgam
Americannoun
-
an alloy of mercury with another metal or metals.
-
an alloy that consists chiefly of silver mixed with mercury and variable amounts of other metals and is used as a dental filling.
-
a rare mineral, an alloy of silver and mercury, occurring as silver-white crystals or grains.
-
a mixture or combination.
His character is a strange amalgam of contradictory traits.
noun
-
an alloy of mercury with another metal, esp with silver
dental amalgam
-
a rare white metallic mineral that consists of silver and mercury and occurs in deposits of silver and cinnabar
-
a blend or combination
-
An alloy of mercury and another metal, especially:
-
An alloy of mercury and silver used in dental fillings.
-
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.
Handel, though, not only represented a musical amalgam of European styles during his lifetime; he also bequeathed to the next generation of composers a non-parochial, universal idiom that was venerated and built upon.
From Literature
Between the flinty crests of the two outermost escarpments of the Outer Range runs an east-west trough, maybe five miles across, carpeted in a boggy amalgam of muskeg, alder thickets, and veins of scrawny spruce.
From Literature
Candidates would need a degree of stenographic and typewriting skill, but what he most looked for and was so very adept at sensing was that alluring amalgam of isolation, weakness, and need.
From Literature
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 Literature
Serapis was an amalgam of Apis, the native bull god, and Osiris, the anthropomorphic lord of the dead—an instant “designer god” fashioned by the Ptolemies to give Greeks and Egyptians a deity in common.
From Literature
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.
