collection

American  

[kuh-lek-shuhn] / kəˈlɛk ʃən /

noun

• collections
  plural

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

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• collections
  plural

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; see collect ¹) + -iō -ion

Explanation

A collection is a group of things, often a group created by someone. For example, many kids have a collection of comic books. Notice the word collect in collection. If you like to collect — that is, gather — things, chances are you might have a collection of some sort. Some common types of collections are of books, stamps, and dolls. You can also refer to a museum's "collection of art." While you might call a group of people a gathering, you would call a group of rare coins a collection.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

collection collections

The biography synthesizes an impressive collection of sources, including personal correspondence, photographs, portraits and the incidental writings of figures such as Franz Liszt and Victor Hugo.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

The work is part of a collection of studies supported by 4DN and published in Science and Science Advances.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

To identify the spadefoot toad, Cruz said he examined the bones of amphibians found at the Tar Pits, a collection that hadn’t been analyzed in nearly 30 years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

From one collection point alone came more than 900 Torah scrolls and roughly 250,000 books.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Their film collection was gone, save a few pieces that Molly had managed to digitize.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

The Fukushima earthquake and tsunami of 2011 in Japan caused major damage to the nearby Iwaki museum with damage to some of the fossils in their collections.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 7, 2026

The company added that updates to correct the erroneous collections reports should be reflected on credit reports within three business days.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

It also discusses practices such as limited collections it uses to keep the environmentally friendly label.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

Museum Wales said Sinnott was one of Wales' most acclaimed painters, with his work held in major collections in the UK and internationally.

From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026

He asked other scientists to send him their barnacle collections, and over the next days, weeks, and months he pulled down more bottles of barnacles from his shelves.

From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman

Related Words

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