amass
Americanverb (used with object)
-
amasses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
amassed,
past participle, past
-
amassing
present participle
-
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)
-
amasses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
amassed,
past participle, past
-
amassing
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to accumulate or collect (esp riches, etc)
-
to gather in a heap; bring together
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
amasssimple
-
amassessimple
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have amassedperfect
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has amassedperfect
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am amassingprogressive
-
are amassingprogressive
-
is amassingprogressive
-
have been amassingperfect progressive
-
has been amassingperfect progressive
Past
-
amassedsimple
-
had amassedperfect
-
was amassingprogressive
-
were amassingprogressive
-
had been amassingperfect progressive
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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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:
Kim has laid out ambitions to accelerate missile production and amass more nuclear warheads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
This aggressive discounting helped Jio rapidly amass some 553 million mobile subscribers by 2026.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
Bernstein expects the Warner Bros. film and TV studios to amass $11.7 billion in revenue, driven by strong titles including the sequel to “Minecraft” and a new “Lord of the Rings” movie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
He inflated Navatek’s payroll to amass loans of $13 million, according to a federal indictment.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
“I wonder if any of them really did amass power that way,” Denny muses.
From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila
William amasses a mighty army to fight Harold for the crown, and the two sides meet at the Battle of Hastings.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Rogan, the exhibition amasses a remarkable range of portable abstract objects.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
If he amasses 223 yards passing, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford will move past Eli Manning into 10th place on the NFL’s career passing yardage list.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024
Paul Bannick, who has written two books about woodpeckers, said the acorn woodpecker, a species common on the West Coast, often amasses thousands of the nuts for winter.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 7, 2023
Maybe if she amasses $4,000, her brother Marco will help her invest it in Honduras.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
But they couldn’t keep up with the daily payments, and amassed significant penalties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
"The scientific community has amassed lots of paleoclimate records over recent decades, but it's remained a challenge to directly link these records to future projections, since there is uncertainty at both ends," said Fu.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 26, 2026
The three-metre "dusky" shark, a species typically found in tropical climates, amassed a huge following, drawing more than 1.6 million people to the Busan canal for a glimpse.
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
Over the years, he published more than 1,500 videos and amassed more than 1.3 million Instagram followers.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Mr. Frankweiler amassed a fortune from the corn oil industry and from developing many corn products.
From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg
After rushing for a touchdown and amassing 125 yards receiving in the Rams’ comeback victory over the Eagles, Nacua said he hoped there would be Philly cheesesteaks on the team plane.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026
On Sunday, Bloomberg reported that Mark Fischbach, a filmmaker and YouTube personality with nearly 40 million subscribers, had become the GoPro’s biggest shareholder after amassing an 8.5% stake in the company.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which doesn’t pay dividends, also suspended buybacks for nearly two years, amassing a record cash hoard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Some experts have warned that amassing too much space junk around Earth could lead to a dangerous chain reaction of collisions known as the "Kessler syndrome."
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
She pushed the prosecutors to go after Reggie, then took on the cause of texting and driving, amassing a binder of evidence for media and legislators.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
