amass

English

Etymology

From Middle English *amassen (found only as Middle English massen (“to amass”)), from Anglo-Norman amasser, from Medieval Latin amassāre, from ad + massa (“lump, mass”). See mass.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əˈmæs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æs

Verb

amass (third-person singular simple present amasses, present participle amassing, simple past and past participle amassed)

1. (transitive) To collect into a mass or heap.
2. (transitive) to gather a great quantity of; to accumulate.

   to amass a treasure or a fortune

   to amass words or phrases

   • 1887, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter V, in A Study in Scarlet Part II, page 123:

     […] he reluctantly returned to the old Nevada mines, there to recruit his health and to amass money enough to allow him to pursue his object without privation.

3. (intransitive) To accumulate; to assemble.

Synonyms

• (collect into a mass): heap up, mound, pile, pile up, stack up; see also Thesaurus:pile up
• (gather a great quantity of): accumulate, amound, collect, gather, hoard; see also Thesaurus:amass

Derived terms

• amassable
• amasser
• amassment
• reamass

 

Translations

to collect into a mass or heap

• Arabic: جَمَعَ (ar) (jamaʕa), حَشَّدَ (ḥaššada), رَكَّمَ (rakkama)
• Bulgarian: стру́пвам (bg) impf (strúpvam), стру́пам pf (strúpam), натру́пвам (bg) impf (natrúpvam), съби́рам (bg) impf (sǎbíram), събера́ (bg) pf (sǎberá)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 積聚／积聚 (zh) (jījù)

• Czech: hromadit (cs) impf, nahromadit pf, kupit (cs) impf, nakupit pf
• Esperanto: amasigi
• Finnish: kasata (fi), kahmia (fi)
• French: amasser (fr), s’amasser (fr) (intransitive)
• German: ansammeln (de), zusammensammeln (de), zusammenklauben (de), anhäufen (de)
• Ido: amasigar (io)
• Japanese: 積む (ja) (つむ, tsumu), 積もる (ja) (つもる, tsumoru) (intransitive)
• Korean: 쌓다 (ko) (ssata), 쌓이다 (ko) (ssaida) (intransitive)
• Latin: accumulō
• Malay: mengumpulkan (ms)
• Polish: gromadzić (pl) impf, zgromadzić (pl) pf
• Portuguese: amontoar (pt)
• Russian: копи́ть (ru) impf (kopítʹ), собира́ть (ru) impf (sobirátʹ), нака́пливать (ru) impf (nakáplivatʹ), собира́ться (ru) impf (sobirátʹsja) (intransitive), ска́пливаться (ru) impf (skáplivatʹsja) (intransitive), нагроможда́ть (ru) impf (nagromoždátʹ), нагромозди́ть (ru) pf (nagromozdítʹ) (transitive), нагроможда́ться (ru) impf (nagromoždátʹsja), нагромозди́ться (ru) (nagromozdítʹsja) (intransitive)
• Slovak: kopiť impf, nakopiť pf, hromadiť impf
• Spanish: amasar (es), acumular (es)
• Turkish: biriktirmek (tr)
• Welsh: tyrru (cy), pentyrru (cy)

Noun

amass (plural amasses)

1. (obsolete) A large number of things collected or piled together.

   Synonyms: mass, heap, pile

   • 1624, Henry Wotton, “The Seate, and the Worke”, in The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC, I. part, page 38:

     [T]his Pillar [the "Compounded Order"] is nothing in effect, but a Medlie, or an Amaſſe of all the precedent Ornaments, making a nevv kinde, by ſtealth, and though the moſt richly tricked, yet the pooreſt in this, that he is a borrovver of all his Beautie.

   • 1788, Thomas Pownall, Notices and Descriptions of Antiquities of the Provincia Romana of Gaul‎^[1], London: John Nichols, page 22:

     […] others are drawn, not as portraits, not strict copies of these most essential characteristic parts, but filled up afterwards from memory, and a general idea of an amass of arms, without the specific one of a trophæal amass, which is the fact of these bas-relieves.

2. (obsolete) The act of amassing.
   • 1591, William Garrard, The Arte of Warre Book 6‎^[2], London: Roger Warde, page 339:

     He [the general] must neuer permit the Captaines to depart from the place, where he made the Amasse and collection of the Companies, with their bands out of order or disseuered, although they should depart to some place neere adioyning, vnlesse he were forced by some occasion of great necessity and importance:

Anagrams

• Assam, Massa, Samas, massa, msasa