merge
Americanverb (used with object)
-
merges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
merged,
past participle, past
-
merging
present participle
-
to cause to combine or coalesce; unite.
- Synonyms:
- consolidate, amalgamate
-
to combine, blend, or unite gradually so as to blur the individuality or individual identity of.
They voted to merge the two branch offices into a single unit.
- Synonyms:
- consolidate, amalgamate
verb (used without object)
-
merges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
merged,
past participle, past
-
merging
present participle
-
to become combined, united, swallowed up, or absorbed; lose identity by uniting or blending (often followed by in orinto ).
This stream merges into the river up ahead.
- Synonyms:
- consolidate, amalgamate
-
to combine or unite into a single enterprise, organization, body, etc..
The two firms merged last year.
verb
-
to meet and join or cause to meet and join
-
to blend or cause to blend; fuse
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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mergencenoun
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remergeverb
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demergeverb (used with object)
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unmergeverb (used with object)
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antimergingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mergesimple
-
mergessimple
-
have mergedperfect
-
has mergedperfect
-
am mergingprogressive
-
are mergingprogressive
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is mergingprogressive
-
have been mergingperfect progressive
-
has been mergingperfect progressive
Past
-
mergedsimple
-
had mergedperfect
-
was mergingprogressive
-
were mergingprogressive
-
had been mergingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of merge
First recorded in 1630–40, merge is from the Latin word mergere to dip, immerse, plunge into water
Explanation
The verb merge means to seamlessly join something. For example, when you merge onto the highway, you need to smoothly join the traffic, forgetting everything you learned riding the bumper cars at the fair. If two or more things become one, they merge. If your favorite deli, The Cheese Stop, merges with a sandwich shop called Chez Lui, the two restaurants might also merge their names, becoming Chez Cheese. You can also use merge when things only appear to blend. You know it's time to go to sleep when the words in your book begin to merge together.
Vocabulary lists containing merge
"Names/Nombres" by Julia Alvarez
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Ghost Boys
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Business, List 3
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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:
The 2015 “Secret Wars” story featured some plotting by Doctor Doom and saw multiverses collide, be destroyed and merge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The mood inside Paramount is one of urgency: Chief Executive David Ellison pushed aggressively to merge with Warner soon after his Skydance acquisition of Paramount closed last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Different parts of a person's life could merge into a single vivid scene.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
Two separate wildfires in the Madrid region combined on Friday to form one huge blaze, which threatened to merge with a third near Avila in the neighbouring Castilla y Leon region.
From Barron's ● Jul. 25, 2026
He had to get back where he could merge with the walls and the ceiling, shimmering white, remote from everything.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
He merges sensitive information and biometrics on his own system, which runs on a local home computer server next to his cats’ treehouse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Additionally, the contract merges the pension plans of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which were previously separate but combined in 2012 to form SAG-AFTRA.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Ouster’s technology gives technology developers a single sensing option that merges camera-level tech with lidar.
From Barron's ● May 4, 2026
The organ merges into Terry's writing desk, loaded with nods to his multi-faceted career.
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026
Radar turns left onto the highway at a somewhat unsafe speed, and then merges back onto the interstate.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
In 2009, he merged his company into Natural Food Holdings, which was later bought by Perdue Farms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Opel was acquired in 2017 by France's Peugeot Group, which in turn merged with Fiat-Chrysler in 2021 to form Stellantis.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
Once the points have been merged, we cannot distinguish between them to send them back to the right positions.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
In the months leading up to SpaceX’s June IPO, he merged SpaceX with xAI, the artificial intelligence startup that had absorbed Musk’s social-media platform X the year before.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
He kissed me and I felt actual euphoria, like all my senses had merged and I was reduced to breaths and heartbeats and repeating integers.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
These layoffs are part of an initiative aimed at streamlining package pickups and deliveries by merging ground and express delivery networks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The U.K. mining group—which is in the process of merging with Canada’s Teck Resources—reported a narrowed net loss due to smaller write-downs on assets it is selling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Another possibility is that a dwarf galaxy is still in the process of merging with the larger system.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
On Tesla’s earnings call with investors last week, Musk was asked about the possibility of Tesla and SpaceX merging.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
But what we observed and experienced in the natural world from afar was an aggregation of dots: pixels merging to form a seamless picture.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
