aggregate

1 of 3

adjective

ag·​gre·​gate ˈa-gri-gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
: formed by the collection of units or particles into a body, mass, or amount : collective: such as
a(1)
: clustered in a dense mass or head
an aggregate flower
(2)
: formed from several separate ovaries of a single flower
aggregate fruit
b
: composed of mineral crystals of one or more kinds or of mineral rock fragments
c
: taking all units as a whole
aggregate sales
aggregately adverb
aggregateness noun

aggregate

2 of 3

verb

ag·​gre·​gate ˈa-gri-ˌgāt How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
aggregated; aggregating

transitive verb

1
: to collect or gather into a mass or whole
The census data were aggregated by gender.
2
: to amount to (a whole sum or total) : total
audiences aggregating several million people

aggregate

3 of 3

noun

ag·​gre·​gate ˈa-gri-gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
1
: a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another
Froth is an aggregate of tiny bubbles.
2
: the whole sum or amount : sum total
spent an aggregate of 10 million dollars in advertising during the past three years
3
a
: a rock composed of mineral crystals of one or more kinds or of mineral rock fragments : an aggregate rock
b
: any of several hard inert materials (such as sand, gravel, or slag) used for mixing with a cementing material to form concrete, mortar, or plaster
c
: a clustered mass of individual soil particles varied in shape, ranging in size from a microscopic granule to a small crumb, and considered the basic structural unit of soil
4
5
Phrases
in the aggregate
: considered as a whole : collectively
Dividends for the year amounted in the aggregate to 25 million dollars.

Did you know?

We added aggregate to our flock of Latin borrowings in the 15th century. It descends from aggregāre ("to cause to flock together" or "to join together"), a Latin verb made up of the prefix ad- (which means "to," and which usually changes to ag- before a g) and greg- or grex (meaning "flock, herd, or group"). Greg- also gave us congregate, gregarious, and segregate. Aggregate is commonly employed in the phrase "in the aggregate," which means "considered as a whole." Aggregate also has some specialized senses. For example, it is used to describe a mass of minerals formed into a rock, and materials like sand or gravel that are used to form concrete, mortar, or plaster.

Examples of aggregate in a Sentence

Adjective There were to be thirty-seven playgrounds, twenty schools. There were to be a hundred and thirty-three miles of street, paved with an inch and a half of No. 2 macadam on an aggregate base. Joan Didion, New Yorker, 26 July 1993
Their success at opening up new sources of supply, generating and servicing demand, and connecting new markets with the processing industries of the Amsterdam entrepôt seemed … to belie the axiom of an inelastic aggregate volume of world trade—a zero-sum competition. Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches, 1988
The mulberry looks a bit like a raspberry. But the raspberry (along with the other brambles, members of the genus Rubus, such as the blackberry) is an aggregate fruit generated by a single, if complex, flower. Raymond Sokolov, Natural History, October 1986
With Keynes, standard theory conceded that disequilibria might intrude upon the economy as a whole, but it held that these could be remedied by judicious stabilization of aggregate demand—that is, combined government and consumer purchasing power. Robert Kuttner, Atlantic, February 1985
The university receives more than half its aggregate income from government sources. The team with the highest aggregate score wins. Verb The problem, in this case, is that the synergy creates incentives for segregation. Ethnic advertisers scour the TV schedule for shows and channels that "aggregate" viewers of the type the client wants to reach … Tamar Jacoby, New Republic, 24 Jan. 2000
"We are good at aggregating eyeballs and delivering services," says Barry Schuler, the president of AOL Interactive Services, "and the Time Warner deal is a natural extension of that." Barry Schuler, Fortune, 7 Feb. 2000
Pollsters, for the most part, know perfectly well what they are doing. One thing they are doing is aggregating and averaging ephemeral spasms of "mood" that may have commercial or political value. Christopher Hitchens, Harper's, April 1992
… covered only if each of the corporations involved has capital, surplus and undivided profits aggregating more than $10 million … Joe Sims et al., National Law Journal, 28 Jan. 1991
The website aggregates content from many other sites. over time, her petty thefts aggregated a significant shortfall in the company's books Noun In particular, a core of popular politically minded blogs known in the aggregate as the Blogosphere has been a beehive of furious activity. Or should I say a wasp's nest? Steven Levy, Newsweek, 4 Oct. 2004
It's true that our lives are the aggregate of a lot of little things, that's precisely why, at least once a year, we need to ride the wave of something bigger and bolder than our own little humdrum existence. Will Manley, Booklist, 1 Sept. 2002
Smallness of enterprises, as in the Japanese bicycle-manufacturing development, is an asset because smallness cuts down administrative and other overhead costs both in individual enterprises and in the aggregate, in comparison with the overhead costs of large operations. Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations, (1984) 1985
numerous episodes of pilferage, taken in the aggregate, can really add up to a significant sum
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
For this tax season, the old rules still apply: 1099-Ks will be required to be issued to people selling goods or services only once their activity exceeds 200 transactions and $20,000 in aggregate payments annually. Tara Siegel Bernard, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2024 On February 23, 2024, SAML signed a Stock Purchase Agreement with ILUS to acquire its existing public safety focused companies for an aggregate purchase price of 350,000,000 shares of common stock issued as 350,000 shares of Series B stock in SAML. Sacramento Bee, 1 Mar. 2024 And so rescinding about half of the enforcement funding is going to cost you about half of these aggregate revenue gains. Robert Goulder, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024 That year, the Gunners advanced to the tournament quarter-finals with a 6-2 aggregate victory. Jack McKessy, USA TODAY, 21 Feb. 2024 According to Utah law, the maximum aggregate sentence for consecutive terms is 30 years. Daysia Tolentino, NBC News, 20 Feb. 2024 Across the nation, cinemas earned an aggregate $21.2 million, the lowest weekend score since China threw off its highly restrictive anti-COVID controls in December 2022. Patrick Frater, Variety, 5 Feb. 2024 The other firms are describing nearer-term results from an aggregate bond universe that includes some long-term bonds and a lot of bonds that will be redeemed and replaced. William Baldwin, Forbes, 17 Feb. 2024 Still, the aggregate capital raised last year by buyout funds reached a record $500 billion, up 51% from 2022, driven by the biggest funds, Raymond James said. Swetha Gopinath, Fortune, 12 Feb. 2024
Verb
The bill also specifies that individual thefts from different victims can be aggregated in order to reach the threshold for felony theft. Andrew Sheeler, Sacramento Bee, 7 Mar. 2024 The idea is to create a workspace where data from various fleet management solutions are aggregated and integrated in a way that provides a holistic view of operations and the fleet managers don't have to navigate multiple user interfaces. Amit Jain, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024 Data collected will be anonymised and aggregated before it’s reviewed by the CIISA team. Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 29 Feb. 2024 These fragmented datasets mean that many organizations are making less informed decisions or are dedicating resources to manually aggregating data from different systems—a wildly inefficient process to address a complicated problem. Amit Jain, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024 This latest update pipes in all your third-party health data from apps like AllTrails and MyFitnessPal and aggregates them into the Today tab in the Fitbit app. Florence Ion / Gizmodo, Quartz, 26 Feb. 2024 The account has primarily posted clips taken from CNN or Donald Trump rallies, aggregating some of Biden’s best moments and Trump’s worst. Makena Kelly, WIRED, 24 Feb. 2024 Any player Denver could have received in a trade wouldn’t have had a salary much higher than $10 million, and even that would have required aggregating Jackson, Nnaji and possibly others. Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 8 Feb. 2024 First, utilize composite endpoints, which allow for aggregating different resources in one response, if required. Expert Panel®, Forbes, 12 Feb. 2024
Noun
This need not be contradictory: The aggregate and the components don’t have to agree. Mike Sommers, Fortune Europe, 1 Feb. 2024 An accurate, but biased, set of pollsters will still yield a biased aggregate on average. G. Elliott Morris, ABC News, 25 Jan. 2024 Likewise, the current state of the market, in which 1% of Americans control more than half the stock-market wealth, offers another perspective on the pandemic’s economic boom, and why an economy that’s strong in the aggregate is leaving many people cold. Irina Ivanova, Fortune, 13 Jan. 2024 The software aggregates and analyzes the data and reports back to the hospitals with insights on protocol compliance, efficiency, safety audits, quality controls, and key video and audio clips for review, annotation, and education. Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 16 Jan. 2024 For that, the (aggregate) savings rate would have to be negative. Mike Sommers, Fortune Europe, 1 Feb. 2024 While small and locally run, in aggregate these nonprofits have a profound impact on the quality of life here. David Holahan, Hartford Courant, 14 Jan. 2024 Republicans fear the turmoil, in aggregate, could spoil their chances of keeping the House in November. David Sivak, Washington Examiner, 12 Jan. 2024 In aggregate, Team Vole believes, a high vole year could make the tundra breathe out carbon. Bathsheba Demuth, The Atlantic, 4 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'aggregate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

Middle English aggregat, borrowed from Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre "to cause to flock together, join, include, lump together," from ad- ad- + -gregāre, verbal derivative of greg-, grex "flock, herd, group" — more at gregarious

Verb

Middle English aggregaten, borrowed from Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre "to cause to flock together, join" — more at aggregate entry 1

Noun

Middle English aggregat, borrowed from Medieval Latin aggregātus, noun derivative of Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre "to cause to flock together, join" — more at aggregate entry 1

First Known Use

Adjective

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of aggregate was in the 15th century

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Dictionary Entries Near aggregate

Cite this Entry

“Aggregate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aggregate. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

aggregate

1 of 3 adjective
ag·​gre·​gate ˈag-ri-gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
1
: formed by the collection of units or particles into one mass or sum
aggregate expenses
2
: clustered in a dense mass or head
an aggregate flower

aggregate

2 of 3 verb
ag·​gre·​gate ˈag-ri-ˌgāt How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
aggregated; aggregating
1
: to collect or gather into a mass or whole
2
: to amount to as a whole : total

aggregate

3 of 3 noun
ag·​gre·​gate ˈag-ri-gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
1
: a collection or sum of units or parts
2
a
: a hard material (as sand or gravel) used especially in making concrete
b
: a clustered mass of individual soil particles considered the basic structural unit of soil
Etymology

Adjective

Middle English aggregat "made up of a collection," derived from Latin aggregare "to cause to join together," from ag-, ad- "to, toward" and greg-, grex "flock, herd" — related to congregate, segregate

Medical Definition

aggregate

1 of 3 adjective
ag·​gre·​gate ˈag-ri-gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
: formed by the collection of units or particles into a body, mass, or amount
aggregation noun
It is now known that these calcifications represent focal aggregations of calcium hydroxyapatite … Medical Radiography & Photography

aggregate

2 of 3 transitive verb
ag·​gre·​gate -ˌgāt How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
aggregated; aggregating
: to collect or gather into a mass or whole
aggregated human albumin

aggregate

3 of 3 noun
ag·​gre·​gate -gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
: a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another

Legal Definition

aggregate

1 of 3 adjective
ag·​gre·​gate ˈa-grə-gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
: taken as a total
aggregate liability

aggregate

2 of 3 verb
ag·​gre·​gate ˈa-grə-ˌgāt How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
aggregated; aggregating

transitive verb

1
: to combine or gather into a whole
class members may aggregate their individual claims
compare join
2
: to amount to
an award aggregating $100,000

intransitive verb

: to form an aggregate
they may not aggregate if their claims are regarded as “separate and distinct”J. M. Landers et al.

aggregate

3 of 3 noun
ag·​gre·​gate ˈa-grə-gət How to pronounce aggregate (audio)
1
: total amount
may sue in federal court if the aggregate of the claims exceeds $75,000
2
: a whole made up of individual units
the aggregate of operative facts

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