Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various alloys of mercury with other metals, especially.
  • noun An alloy of mercury and silver used in dental fillings.
  • noun An alloy of mercury and tin used in silvering mirrors.
  • noun A combination of diverse elements; a mixture.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To mix, as metals, by amalgamation; amalgamate.
  • To become amalgamated.
  • noun A compound of mercury or quicksilver with another metal; any metallic alloy of which mercury forms an essential constituent part.
  • noun Figuratively, a mixture or compound of different things.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An alloy of mercury with another metal or metals
  • noun A mixture or compound of different things.
  • noun (Min.) A native compound of mercury and silver.
  • verb To amalgamate.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A combination of different things
  • noun metallurgy An alloy containing mercury
  • verb archaic, transitive, intransitive To amalgamate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a combination or blend of diverse things
  • noun an alloy of mercury with another metal (usually silver) used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth; except for iron and platinum all metals dissolve in mercury and chemists refer to the resulting mercury mixtures as amalgams

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French amalgame, from Medieval Latin amalgama, probably ultimately from Greek malagma, soft mass.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Medieval Latin amalgama ("mercury alloy"), from Ancient Greek μάλαγμα (malagma, "gold"), from μαλάσσω (malassō, "to soften"), from μαλακός (malakos, "soft"). For the verb, compare French amalgamer.

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Examples

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  • a mixture of multiple things

    The band’s music was an amalgam of hip-hop, flamenco and jazz, blending the three styles with surprising results.

    October 11, 2016