Definitions

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

  • adjective Constituting or amounting to a whole; total.
  • adjective Botany Crowded or massed into a dense cluster.
  • adjective Composed of a mixture of minerals separable by mechanical means.
  • noun A total considered with reference to its constituent parts; a gross amount.
  • noun The mineral materials, such as sand or stone, used in making concrete.
  • intransitive verb To gather into a mass, sum, or whole.
  • intransitive verb To amount to; total.
  • intransitive verb To collect (content from different sources on the Internet) into one webpage or newsreader.
  • intransitive verb To come together or collect in a mass or whole.
  • idiom (in the aggregate) Taken into account as a whole.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Formed by the conjunction or collection of particulars into a whole mass or sum; total; combined: as, the aggregate amount of indebtedness.
  • Specifically— In geology, composed of several different mineral constituents capable of being separated by mechanical means: as, granite is an aggregate rock.
  • In anatomy, clustered: as, aggregate glands (Peyer's glands)
  • In botany, forming a dense cluster. In zoology, compound; associated. In law, composed of many individuals united into one association.
  • noun A sum, mass, or assemblage of particulars; a total or gross amount; any combined whole considered with reference to its constituent parts.
  • noun Any hard material added to lime to make concrete.
  • noun Milit., the total commissioned and enlisted force of any post, department, division, corps, or other command.
  • To bring together; collect into a sum, mass, or body: as, “the aggregated soil,” Milton, P. L., x. 293.
  • To amount to (the number of); make (the sum or total of): an elliptical use.
  • To add or unite to as a constituent member; make a part of the aggregate of: as, to aggregate a person to a company or society.
  • To come together into a sum or mass; combine and form a collection or mass.
  • noun In logic, a whole of aggregants which is universally predicable of every one of its aggregants and is not predicable of any individual of which none of its aggregants is predicable.

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

  • transitive verb To bring together; to collect into a mass or sum. “The aggregated soil.”
  • transitive verb To add or unite, .
  • transitive verb colloq. To amount in the aggregate to.
  • noun A mass, assemblage, or sum of particulars
  • noun (Physics) A mass formed by the union of homogeneous particles; -- in distinction from a compound, formed by the union of heterogeneous particles.
  • noun collectively; together.
  • adjective Formed by a collection of particulars into a whole mass or sum; collective.
  • adjective (Anat.) Formed into clusters or groups of lobules.
  • adjective (Bot.) Composed of several florets within a common involucre, as in the daisy; or of several carpels formed from one flower, as in the raspberry.
  • adjective (Min. & Geol.) Having the several component parts adherent to each other only to such a degree as to be separable by mechanical means.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) United into a common organized mass; -- said of certain compound animals.
  • adjective (Law) See under Corporation.

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

  • noun A mass, assemblage, or sum of particulars; something consisting of elements but considered as a whole.
  • noun A mass formed by the union of homogeneous particles; – in distinction from a compound, formed by the union of heterogeneous particles.
  • noun mathematics, obsolete A set (collection of objects).
  • noun music The full chromatic scale of twelve equal tempered pitches.
  • noun roofing Crushed stone, crushed slag or water-worn gravel used for surfacing a built-up roof system.
  • noun Solid particles of low aspect ratio added to a composite material, as distinguished from the matrix and any fibers or reinforcements, especially the gravel and sand added to concrete. (technical)
  • adjective Formed by a collection of particulars into a whole mass or sum; collective; combined; added up
  • adjective Consisting or formed of smaller objects or parts.
  • adjective Formed into clusters or groups of lobules.
  • adjective botany Composed of several florets within a common involucre, as in the daisy; or of several carpels formed from one flower, as in the raspberry.
  • adjective Having the several component parts adherent to each other only to such a degree as to be separable by mechanical means.
  • adjective United into a common organized mass; said of certain compound animals.
  • verb transitive To bring together; to collect into a mass or sum.
  • verb transitive To add or unite, as, a person, to an association.
  • verb transitive To amount in the aggregate to.

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

  • verb amount in the aggregate to

Etymologies

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

[Middle English aggregat, from Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre, to add to : ad-, ad- + gregāre, to collect (from grex, greg-, flock; see ger- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin aggregātus, perfect passive participle of aggregō ("I flock together"), from ag-, combining form of ad ("to, toward"), + gregō ("I flock or group"), from grex ("flock"). Compare gregarious.

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Examples

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  • In botany, used to describe a plant or flower formed of florets collected in a dense cluster but not cohering, as the daisy. Also used to describe fruit that's composed of a cluster of carpels belonging to the same flower, such as the raspberry.

    November 14, 2007

  • This word is typed with three fingers of the left hand, a joy for lefties like me. Who needs a right hand anyway?

    February 26, 2011

  • Species death like this is nothing more than a shift in the aggregate psychic agenda. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.

    March 3, 2012