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

The results pile pressure on the beleaguered group, which has been suffering from slimmer margins from the sales of electric cars, US tariffs and above all intense Chinese competition.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

South Korea’s stock market has become increasingly volatile as retail investors have resorted to margin borrowing to pile into single-stock ETFs tied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

Flipping through them three decades on, she realized what made dELiA*s and its ilk so different from the other mail-order catalogs that materialized every few months in her family’s mail pile like L.L.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2026

The growing pile of borrowed money has some on Wall Street nervous.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026

James’s expression clouded, and he began to pile all the sheets into one of the laundry’s baskets.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

Bruesewitz piled on, telling Carlson that Fine “has tweeted some ugly things, really ugly things,” and he promoted Fine’s primary challenger, celebrity gambler Dan Bilzerian.

From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026

At around 10:30 p.m. that evening, eight passengers piled into Soleau’s 2015 Toyota Tacoma, including three people in the bed of the truck, prosecutors said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026

As he piled up clutch play after clutch play, and poured in 45 points on the night he made New York history, Brunson’s expression never changed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

Pakistan piled up 556 batting first on a flat surface but the visitors were unfazed, the batters putting behind nearly two days in the dirt to rack up countless records.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

It’s piled with pigeons in cages, cooing and hopping about.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

The Michael Center for Spiritual Liberation and Exorcism -- five months old this week -- was built because "cases were piling up", Father Jose Francisco Syquia told AFP.

From Barron's ● Jul. 19, 2026

While they still seem to be piling into leveraged exchange-traded funds, trading on margin and in options is beginning to slow.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026

Activity in the options market has been off the charts so far in 2026, with investors piling into bullish call options tied to hot semiconductor names and other high-flying stocks.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026

Let’s also say the tower of pennies stays intact as you keep piling them higher and higher until they reach a million.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026

He sat up, the better to look at the great mountains where they went piling back, growing darker and more savage until they finished with one jagged ridge, high up against the west.

From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

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