different between congregate vs amass

English

Etymology

From Latin congregatus, past participle of congregare (“to congregate”), from con- (“with, together”) + gregare (“to collect into a flock”), from grex (“flock, herd”). See gregarious.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??.???.?e?t/

Adjective

congregate (comparative more congregate, superlative most congregate)

1. (rare) Collective; assembled; compact.
   • 1605, Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, Book II, Chapter IX:

     With this reservation, therefore, we proceed to human philosophy or humanity, which hath two parts: the one considereth man segregate or distributively, the other congregate or in society; so as human philosophy is either simple and particular, or conjugate and civil.

Verb

congregate (third-person singular simple present congregates, present participle congregating, simple past and past participle congregated)

1. (transitive) To collect into an assembly or assemblage; to bring into one place, or into a united body

   Synonyms: amass, assemble, compact, bring together, gather, mass; see also Thesaurus:round up

   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     Any multitude of Christian men congregated may be termed by the name of a church.

   • 1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection

     Cold congregates all bodies.
2. (intransitive) To come together; to assemble; to meet.

   Synonyms: assemble, begather, forgather; see also Thesaurus:assemble

Related terms

• congregation

Translations

Italian

Verb

congregate

1. second-person plural present indicative of congregare
2. second-person plural imperative of congregare
3. feminine plural of congregato

Anagrams

• conteggerà

Latin

Verb

congreg?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of congreg?

English

Etymology

From Middle English *amassen (found only as Middle English massen (“to amass”)), from Anglo-Norman amasser, from Medieval Latin amass?re, from ad + massa (“lump, mass”). See mass.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /??mæs/

Verb

amass (third-person singular simple present amasses, present participle amassing, simple past and past participle amassed)

1. (transitive) To collect into a mass or heap.
2. (transitive) to gather a great quantity of; to accumulate.
   • 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, Part II, Chapter V, page 123:

     […] he reluctantly returned to the old Nevada mines, there to recruit his health and to amass money enough to allow him to pursue his object without privation.

Synonyms

• (collect into a mass): heap up, mound, pile, pile up, stack up; see also Thesaurus:pile up
• (gather a great quantity of): accumulate, amound, collect, gather, hoard; see also Thesaurus:amass

Derived terms

• amasser
• amassment

Translations

Noun

amass (plural amasses)

1. (obsolete) A large number of things collected or piled together.

   Synonyms: mass, heap, pile

   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, London, p. 38,^[1]

     […] this Pillar [the Compounded Order] is nothing in effect, but a Medlie, or an Amasse of all the precedent Ornaments, making a new kinde, by stealth, and though the most richly tricked, yet the poorest in this, that he is a borrower of all his Beautie.

   • 1788, Thomas Pownall, Notices and Descriptions of Antiquities of the Provincia Romana of Gaul, London: John Nichols, p. 22,^[2]

     […] others are drawn, not as portraits, not strict copies of these most essential characteristic parts, but filled up afterwards from memory, and a general idea of an amass of arms, without the specific one of a trophæal amass, which is the fact of these bas-relieves.

2. (obsolete) The act of amassing.
   • 1591, William Garrard, The Arte of Warre, London: Roger Warde, Book 6, p. 339,^[3]

     He [the general] must neuer permit the Captaines to depart from the place, where he made the Amasse and collection of the Companies, with their bands out of order or disseuered, although they should depart to some place neere adioyning, vnlesse he were forced by some occasion of great necessity and importance:

Anagrams

• Assam, Massa, Samas, massa, msasa