merger

American  

[mur-jer] / ˈmɜr dʒər /

noun

• mergers
  plural

1. a statutory combination of two or more corporations by the transfer of the properties to one surviving corporation.

2. any combination of two or more business enterprises into a single enterprise.

3. an act or instance of merging.

   Astronomers say that the merger of galaxies can take a billion years.

4. Phonetics. the process or phenomenon whereby two distinct speech sounds come to be pronounced identically: for instance, the cot–caught vowel merger has taken place in some dialects of English.

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merger British  

/ ˈmɜːdʒə /

noun

1. Often called (Brit): amalgamation.  commerce the combination of two or more companies, either by the creation of a new organization or by absorption by one of the others

2. law the extinguishment of an estate, interest, contract, right, offence, etc, by its absorption into a greater one

3. the act of merging or the state of being merged

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merger Cultural  

1. The union of two or more independent corporations under a single ownership. Also known as takeovers, mergers may be friendly or hostile. In the latter case, the buying company, having met with resistance from directors of the targeted company, usually offers an inflated (overmarket) price to persuade stockholders of the targeted company to sell their shares to it. Such mergers often have been financed by junk bonds.

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Discover More

Especially common in the 1980s, hostile takeovers have become highly controversial. Some contend that they bring needed infusions of capital and efficiency to the targeted company. Others argue that, having borrowed heavily to finance the merger, the buyer is forced to sell valuable assets of the targeted company to pay off its debt.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• demerger
  noun
• antimerger
  adjective
• premerger
  adjective
• promerger
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mergers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of merger

First recorded in 1720–30; merge + -er ¹

Explanation

When two companies become one company, they've had a merger. A merger is like a marriage for things other than people. It might help you remember merger to think of something that happens on the highway: several lanes sometimes have to merge into one lane. Merging leads to more than one thing becoming one. Words that mean something similar to merger are unification and fusion. Separation and break-up are opposites of a merger.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

merger mergers

That verdict was abundantly clear recently when AstraZeneca AZN 2.05%increase; up pointing triangle shares plunged following a Financial Times report that it had explored a merger with Bristol Myers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Several Wall Street analysts have said a merger could be announced by the end of 2027, which may be pressuring Tesla shares.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026

“We have satisfied all closing conditions under our merger agreement, having received regulatory clearances from 68 jurisdictions,” Paramount said in a statement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

G3 Enterprises was formed in 2003 following the merger of a trucking company, an aluminum closure maker, an agricultural transport company and a label printing company, according to the company website.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

He helped Federal Express develop its package tracking and tracing system, then moved over to McCaw Cellular, the mobile phone company, built that up, and oversaw its merger with AT&T in 1994.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

The industry in general is looking at mergers and acquisitions as a way to scale up and bring costs down, he added.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026

Large-scale mergers in the pharma industry tend to destroy research-and-development productivity and AstraZeneca hasn’t favored restructuring programs during Chief Executive Pascal Soriot’s tenure and already has a strong pipeline, they added.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

The company has also utilized mergers and acquisitions to bolster its cybersecurity offerings, closing acquisitions for Veza and Armis earlier this year.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 2, 2026

These reactions play a central role in producing heavy elements during extreme cosmic events, including supernovae and neutron star mergers.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 31, 2026

And the people who were already there pushed back, and the mergers pushed harder.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Related Words

• combination
• tie up
• unification
• union