collection

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
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Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Old French collection, from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem.

Pronunciation[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

collection (countable and uncountable, plural collections)

  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, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →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
    • (Can we date this quote by Dunglison and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      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.
    • 1644, John Milton, The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce:
      We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.
  8. (Britain) The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
  9. (in the plural, Britain, Oxford University) A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.
  10. The quality of being collected; calm composure.

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from collection

Translations[edit]

debt collection — see debt collection
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

Noun[edit]

collection f (plural collections)

  1. collection

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

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