collection

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English

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Etymology

From Middle English colleccioun, collection, from Old French collection, from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem, from collēctus, from colligō (collect together), composed of con- +‎ legō (bring together, gather, collect), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (to gather, collect).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kəˈlɛkʃən/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛkʃən
  • Hyphenation: col‧lec‧tion

Noun

collection (countable and uncountable, plural collections)

Museum stores its butterfly collection in special specimen drawers.
  1. A set of items or amount of material procured or gathered together.
    • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, 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.
    • 1837, William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences
      collections of moisture
    • 1887, Robert Bartholow, A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine
      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, mathematical analysis) A set of sets.
  5. A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes, as by passing a contribution box for donations.
  6. (law) Debt collection.
  7. (obsolete) The act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts; also, that which is inferred.
  8. (UK) The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
  9. (Oxford University, usually in the plural) A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.
  10. The quality of being collected; calm composure.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. 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

Noun

collection f (plural collections)

  1. collection

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Romanian: colecție
  • Turkish: koleksiyon

Further reading