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.

---

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

---

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.

---

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

A new flying sports car may be exactly what CEO Elon Musk needs to sell Wall Street on a merger between Tesla and SpaceX.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

When asked about a merger during a recent earnings call, Musk told investors that there was “more and more overlap” between the companies, but that he couldn’t discuss a combination on that call.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

UniCredit wants to create a European banking behemoth better able to take on bigger US rivals, arguing that a merger would strengthen the region's fragmented banking sector.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

This would need legislation to be brought forward, given that current laws do not cover the effect of a merger on streaming or on-demand programmes.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

For me, marriage was more like a full-on merger, a reconfiguring of two lives into one, with the well-being of a family taking precedence over any one agenda or goal.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Goldman also scored higher investment banking fees, citing increases in completed mergers and an elevated level of initial public and secondary equity offerings.

From Barron's ● Oct. 13, 2026

Before becoming an MP, he ran an international mergers and acquisitions advisory firm.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

Then again, Gonzalez noted that in Seaport’s 15 years covering the restaurant industry, mergers and acquisitions weren’t a guaranteed cure for companies’ woes.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

"The newly discovered soft X-ray component provides a new probe, indicating that the fast X-ray transients are also electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational-wave sources and may originate from compact object mergers," said Professor Troja.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

He is now an associate in mergers and acquisitions at Milbank Tweed in New York, where, interestingly, Hugh Corcoran was just made partner.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• combination
• tie up
• unification
• union

---