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

• IPA^(key): /əˈmæs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

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, A Study in Scarlet, Part II, Chapter V, 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.

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

• amasser
• amassment

Translations

to collect into a mass or heap

• Bulgarian: струпвам (bg) (strupvam), натрупвам (bg) (natrupvam), събирам (bg) (sǎbiram)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 积聚 (zh) (jījù)

• Esperanto: amasigi
• Finnish: kasata (fi), kahmia (fi)
• French: amasser (fr)
• German: ansammeln (de), zusammensammeln, zusammenklauben, anhäufen (de)
• Ido: amasigar (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Interlingue: ,
• Latin: accumulō
• Malay: mengumpulkan (ms)
• Polish: gromadzić (pl)
• 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)
• Spanish: amasar (es), acumular (es)
• 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 Elements of Architecture, London, p. 38,^[1]

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

   • 1788, Thomas Pownall, Notices and Descriptions of Antiquities of the Provincia Romana of Gaul, London: John Nichols, p. 22,^[2]

     […] 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, London: Roger Warde, Book 6, p. 339,^[3]

     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