ag·gre·gate
(ăǵrĭ-gĭt)
[Middle English aggregat, from Latin aggregātus past participle of aggregāre, to add to, ad-, ad-, + gregāre, to collect (from grex, greg-, flock; see ger-).]
adjective
- Constituting or amounting to a whole; total: aggregate sales in that market.
- Botany Crowded or massed into a dense cluster.
- Composed of a mixture of minerals separable by mechanical means.
noun
- A total considered with reference to its constituent parts; a gross amount: “An empire is the aggregate of many states under one common head” (Edmund Burke)
- The mineral materials, such as sand or stone, used in making concrete.
verb: -gat·ed, -gat·ing, -gates.
transitive verb
- To gather into a mass, sum, or whole.
- To amount to; total.
intransitive verb
- To come together or collect in a mass or whole: “Some aggregate so closely as to mimic a multicellular organism” (Gina Kolata)
idioms
- in the aggregate
- Taken into account as a whole: Unit sales for December amounted in the aggregate to 100,000.
derivatives
- aǵgre·gate·ly
- adverb
- aǵgre·gátion
- noun
- aǵgre·gátive
- adjective
- aǵgre·gátor
- noun
