pile

¹ American  

[pahyl] / paɪl /

noun

1. an assemblage of things laid or lying one upon the other.

   a pile of papers;

   a pile of bricks.

   Synonyms:

   batch, mound, stack, accumulation, mass, heap, collection

2. Informal. a large number, quantity, or amount of anything.

   a pile of work.

3. a heap of wood on which a dead body, a living person, or a sacrifice is burned; pyre.

4. a lofty or large building or group of buildings.

   the noble pile of Windsor Castle.

5. Informal. a large accumulation of money.

   They made a pile on Wall Street.

6. a bundle of pieces of iron ready to be welded and drawn out into bars; fagot.

7. reactor.

8. Electricity. voltaic pile.

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verb (used with object)

piled, piling

1. to lay or dispose in a pile (often followed byup ).

   to pile up the fallen autumn leaves.

2. to accumulate or store (often followed byup ).

   to pile up money; squirrels piling up nuts against the winter.

3. to cover or load with a pile.

   He piled the wagon with hay.

verb (used without object)

piled, piling

1. to accumulate, as money, debts, evidence, etc. (usually followed byup ).

2. Informal. to move as a group in a more or less confused, disorderly cluster.

   to pile off a train.

3. to gather, accumulate, or rise in a pile or piles (often followed byup ).

   The snow is piling up on the roofs.

verb phrase

1. pile on

   1. to add or give in a plentiful or excessive manner: My mother-in-law finds a way to pile on more criticism of my life choices every time we visit.

      This ice cream shop really piles on the toppings.

      My mother-in-law finds a way to pile on more criticism of my life choices every time we visit.

   2. Sports. to jump onto the pile of bodies after an opponent has been brought to the ground and the play has been ended.

   3. to join a hostile group in harshly criticizing or judging a less dominant group or individual, sometimes gloating over that group’s or person's defeat or diminished standing.

pile ² American  

[pahyl] / paɪl /

noun

1. a cylindrical or flat member of wood, steel, concrete, etc., often tapered or pointed at the lower end, hammered vertically into soil to form part of a foundation or retaining wall.

2. Heraldry. an ordinary in the form of a wedge or triangle coming from one edge of the escutcheon, from the chief unless otherwise specified.

3. Archery. the sharp head or striking end of an arrow, usually of metal and of the form of a wedge or conical nub.

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verb (used with object)

piled, piling

1. to furnish, strengthen, or support with piles.

2. to drive piles into.

idioms

1. in pile, (of a number of charges) arranged in the manner of a pile.

pile ³ American  

[pahyl] / paɪl /

noun

1. a fabric with a surface of upright yarns, cut or looped, as corduroy, Turkish toweling, velvet, and velveteen.

2. such a surface.

3. one of the strands in such a surface.

4. soft, fine hair or down.

5. wool, fur, or pelage.

6. hair.

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pile ⁴ American  

[pahyl] / paɪl /

noun

1. Usually piles a hemorrhoid.

2. piles, the condition of having hemorrhoids.

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pile ⁵ American  

[pahyl] / paɪl /

noun

1. the lower of two dies for coining by hand.

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pile ¹ British  

/ paɪl /

noun

1. a collection of objects laid on top of one another or of other material stacked vertically; heap; mound

2. informal a large amount of money (esp in the phrase make a pile )

3. informal (often plural) a large amount

   a pile of work

4. a less common word for pyre

5. a large building or group of buildings

6. short for voltaic pile

7. physics a structure of uranium and a moderator used for producing atomic energy; nuclear reactor

8. metallurgy an arrangement of wrought-iron bars that are to be heated and worked into a single bar

9. the point of an arrow

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verb

1. (often foll by up) to collect or be collected into or as if into a pile

   snow piled up in the drive

2. (intr; foll by in, into, off, out, etc) to move in a group, esp in a hurried or disorganized manner

   to pile off the bus

3. to prop a number of rifles together, muzzles together and upwards, butts forming the base

4. informal to exaggerate

pile ² British  

/ paɪl /

noun

1. a long column of timber, concrete, or steel that is driven into the ground to provide a foundation for a vertical load (a bearing pile) or a group of such columns to resist a horizontal load from earth or water pressure (a sheet pile)

2. heraldry an ordinary shaped like a wedge, usually displayed point-downwards

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verb

1. to drive (piles) into the ground

2. to provide or support (a structure) with piles

pile ³ British  

/ paɪl /

noun

1. textiles

   1. the yarns in a fabric that stand up or out from the weave, as in carpeting, velvet, flannel, etc

   2. one of these yarns

2. soft fine hair, fur, wool, etc

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pile More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing pile

• make a bundle (pile)

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Etymology

Origin of pile¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin pīla “pillar, pier, pile of stone”

Origin of pile²

First recorded before 1000; Middle English pil(e) “pointed missile, arrow, dart,” Old English pīl “pointed stick, shaft,” from Latin pīlum “throwing spear, javelin”

Origin of pile³

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English piles “hair, plumage,” from Latin pilus “a hair”

Origin of pile⁴

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English piles, pyles (plural), from Medieval Latin pili (masculine plural), from Latin pilae (feminine plural), literally, “balls” (from their shape); cf. pill ¹

Origin of pile⁵

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English pil, pile, pyl “reverse of a coin,” from Medieval Latin pīla, special use of Latin pīla pile ¹

Explanation

A pile is a heap of stuff that keeps accumulating, like the dirty laundry in the back of your closet, or Uncle Scrooge’s money. Pile can be used as a noun or a verb. If you pile rocks on top of each other, you will eventually have a...pile of rocks. Unlike the word stack, pile implies that your heap of stuff is fairly messy. It can also mean cram. When eight people pile into a car with only five seats, they’re likely to be pretty much squashed.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pile piled piling

You should not treat the $500,000 as “a standalone pile of money,” said James Mayo, a certified financial planner and principal of IronFjord Wealth Management.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026

Recruiting almost exclusively among the huge and jacked — it’s easier to appear larger-than-life on camera if you’re real-world large — makes the list of heart conditions start to pile up.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

As the losses pile up, urgency is giving way to exasperation for a team with an especially challenging schedule of upcoming opponents: at Seattle, Denver, at Kansas City, at Rams, Houston, at Baltimore.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026

Higher borrowing costs have also hit the US, the world's largest economy, which has seen its debt pile surpass $40tn.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

One of Devlin’s men rattled by on a cart with a few pieces of furniture: a wooden chair, a settle, a pile of rusty tools.

From "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff

Musk fans and Delta loyalists piled in, generating strings of comments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

Mine started with garlic, red onion, sun-dried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, fennel, olive oil, spices and an anchovy or two, all piled into a Dutch oven and roasted together.

From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026

She and Zihan were among some 500 people - mostly Chinese diaspora - who piled into an auditorium recently in Singapore.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

And while GM Brandon Gomes publicly blamed the “ebbs and flows” of a season and not knee inflammation or biceps tightness, Ohtani waved wildly at pitches and piled up 22 strikeouts in 14 games.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

Her hair was piled on top of her head in her usual messy bun, and she carried a full-size baguette tucked under her arm.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny

The long wait for gas turbines has everyone from tiny California startup Parallax to Elon Musk piling into the power business.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

It was expected at first that older people would mostly use DRT but the council said it had found younger people "piling in there".

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

Against USC, though, the Scarlet Knights had little trouble moving up and down the field, piling up 460 yards along the way.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

U.S. home sales are in a slump, and inventory has been piling up as buyers get spooked by higher borrowing costs.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026

As she was piling the branches higher and higher, she saw, on the side of a dry piece of birch wood, the gray hoof of a mushroom.

From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich

Related Words

• accumulation
• assortment
• chunk
• hill
• hunk
• jumble
• lump
• mass
• mountain
• ocean
• pyramid
• quantity
• stack
• stockpile