conglomerate

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   composed of heterogeneous elements gathered into a mass

   the conglomerate peoples of New England

2. 2
   noun

   A cluster of heterogeneous things.

   They [miracles in the canonical gospels] are held, too, together by his [Jesus Christ's] strong and central personality, which does not leave them a conglomerate of marvellous anecdotes accidentally heaped together, but parts of a great organic whole, of which every part is in vital coherence with every other.

3. 3
   noun

   A corporation formed by the combination of several smaller corporations whose activities are unrelated to the corporation's primary activity.

   The 2017 list includes 80 financial conglomerates with the head of group located in the European Union or European Economic Area, one financial conglomerate with the head of group in Switzerland, one in Bermuda, and two in the United States.

4. 4
   noun

   A rock consisting of gravel or pebbles embedded in a matrix.

   When sandstone is coarse-grained, it is usually called grit. If the grains are rounded, and large enough to be called pebbles, it becomes a conglomerate, or pudding-stone, which may consist of pieces of one or of many different kinds of rock. A conglomerate, therefore, is simply gravel bound together by a cement.

5. 5
   adj

   Clustered together into a mass.

   conglomerate flowers

6. 6
   adj

   Composed of fragments of rock, pebbles, or stones cemented together.

   The Santa Margarita Formation in the southern Temblor Range, composed of conglomerate and subordinate sandstone, evolved as a large complex of fan deltas and submarine fans in late Miocene time.

7. 7
   adj

   Made up of heterogeneous elements; composite.

   I sat down on a step for a while to get over it, with my head in my hands and that awful conglomerate sound in my ears all the time.

8. 8
   verb

   To combine together into a larger mass.

   [V]apors are never attracted or drawn up above the middle Region of the Air; for that the cold Air there, by thickning and conglomerating them, preſently turn them into clouds: and thence proceeds Miſts, Rains, Snows, Hayls, &c.

Etymology

First attested in the second part of the 16ᵗʰ century; from Latin conglomerātus, perfect passive participle of conglomerō (“to pile into a heap, to roll together”) (see -ate (Etymology 1, 2 and 3)), from con- (prefix indicating a being or bringing together of several objects) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“beside, by, near, with”)) + glomerāre (from glomerō (“to pile into a heap, to make into a ball, glomerate”), from glomus (“ball of thread; ball-shaped mass”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball; ball”)).