collection

American  

[kuh-lek-shuhn] / kəˈlɛk ʃən /

noun

1. the act of collecting.

2. something that is collected; a group of objects or an amount of material accumulated in one location, especially for some purpose or as a result of some process: a collection of unclaimed hats in the checkroom;

   a stamp collection;

   a collection of unclaimed hats in the checkroom;

   a collection of books on Churchill.

   Synonyms:

   store, hoard, pile, heap, mass, aggregation, accumulation

3. the works of art constituting the holdings of an art museum.

   a history of the museum and of the collection.

4. the gathered or exhibited works of a single painter, sculptor, etc..

   an excellent Picasso collection.

5. collections, the various holdings of an art museum organized by category, as painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, or film.

   the director of the collections.

6. the clothes or other items produced by a designer, especially for a seasonal line.

   the spring collection.

7. a sum of money collected, especially for charity or church use.

   Synonyms:

   alms, contribution(s)

8. Manège. act of bringing or coming into a collected attitude.

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collection British  

/ kəˈlɛkʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of collecting

2. a number of things collected or assembled together

3. a selection of clothes, esp as presented by a particular designer for a specified season

4. something gathered into a mass or pile; accumulation

   a collection of rubbish

5. a sum of money collected or solicited, as in church

6. removal, esp regular removal of letters from a postbox

7. (often plural) (at Oxford University) a college examination or an oral report by a tutor

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Other Word Forms

• collectional adjective
• noncollection noun
• precollection noun
• subcollection noun

Etymology

Origin of collection

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English colleccioun, from Anglo-French, from Latin collēctiōn-, stem of collēctiō “a gathering together,” from collēct(us) “gathered together” (past participle of colligere; collect ¹ ) + -iō -ion

Example Sentences

Its long-running grant programs promote community engagement and public access to information, while bolstering institutions’ ability to care for collections and prepare for disasters.

From Salon

Biker Matt Lem, who helped organise the collection, said cards had been sent in from places including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and USA.

From BBC

Gowda - whose eye-popping collection includes rare editions of the Bible, along with books on every subject imaginable - comes from a farming family where books were a luxury.

From BBC

I spent most of the day at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, home to a wide-ranging collection of work by the New Orleans-born artist who lived in Ocean Springs for decades.

From The Wall Street Journal

Ironically, the full effects of the loss of funding are not fully known because one of the things it supported was data collection.

From BBC

Related Words

• assemblage
• assortment
• compilation
• lot
• number
• selection
• set
• store