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

One of the goals of the merger is to shave costs by consolidating overlapping business divisions and back-office functions.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

Plus, a Tesla-SpaceX merger gives Elon Musk a shortcut to his $1 trillion payday, and the University of Michigan drops first-semester grades to “curb a mental health crisis.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

The mogul has told investors the company is willing to negotiate a settlement with Bonta in hopes of completing the massive merger as soon as possible.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

"This illegal merger will result in higher costs, fewer options, and fewer people making movies," he wrote.

From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026

“Then, of course, that sell order didn’t go through and there was a merger and so you were, at that point, worth something in the neighborhood of four hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”

From "Lawn Boy Returns" by Gary Paulsen

Scientists have long predicted that some black holes could be displaced toward the outer regions of galaxies during galactic collisions and mergers.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026

More than 440 colleges are at risk of closing or merging in the next decade, according to a forecast by the Huron Consulting Group, which advises schools on operations and mergers.

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