Collection

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /kəˈlÉ›kʃən/
• Rhymes: -É›kʃən

Origin

Borrowing from fro collection.

Full definition of collection

Noun

1. A set of items or amount of material procured or gathered together.
• Schuster Hepaticae V|viiSecondly, 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 WhewellCollections of moisture.
• DunglisonA purulent collection.
2. 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.
3. Multiple related objects associated as a group.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 5, 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.
4. He has a superb coin collection.
5. The activity of collecting.
   Collection of trash will occur every Thursday.
6. (topology, analysis) A set of sets.
7. A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes, as by passing a contribution box for donations.
8. (obsolete) The act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts; also, that which is inferred.
• John MiltonWe may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.
9. (UK) The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.

Derived terms