collection

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French collection, from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem.

Pronunciation

  • (US) IPA(key): /kəˈlɛkʃən/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

Noun

collection (plural collections)

  1. A set of items or amount of material procured or gathered together.
    • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page vii
      Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.
    • William Whewell
      Collections of moisture.
    • Dunglison
      A purulent collection.
    The attic contains a remarkable collection of antiques, oddities, and random junk.
    The asteroid belt consists of a collection of dust, rubble, and minor planets.
  2. Multiple related objects associated as a group.
    • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
      Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
    He has a superb coin collection.
  3. The activity of collecting.
    Collection of trash will occur every Thursday.
  4. (topology, analysis) A set of sets.
  5. A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes, as by passing a contribution box for donations.
  6. (obsolete) The act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts; also, that which is inferred.
    • John Milton
      We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.
  7. (Britain) The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
  8. (in the plural, Britain, Oxford University slang) A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

French

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem. Cf. also Old French quieuçon, which may be inherited from the same source, and the modern cueillaison, which was probably formed analogically.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kɔ.lɛk.sjɔ̃/
  • Audio (France, Paris)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔ̃
  • Homophone: collections
  • Hyphenation: col‧lec‧tion

Noun

collection f (plural collections)

  1. collection

Derived terms

Further reading

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