COLLECTION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does collection mean? 

• COLLECTION (noun)
  The noun COLLECTION has 4 senses:

1. several things grouped together or considered as a whole

2. a publication containing a variety of works

3. request for a sum of money

4. the act of gathering something together

  Familiarity information: COLLECTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLLECTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Several things grouped together or considered as a whole

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

accumulation; aggregation; assemblage; collection

Hypernyms ("collection" is a kind of...):

group; grouping (any number of entities (members) considered as a unit)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "collection"):

procession (the group action of a collection of people or animals or vehicles moving ahead in more or less regular formation)

pharmacopoeia (a collection or stock of drugs)

string (a collection of objects threaded on a single strand)

wardrobe (collection of clothing belonging to one person)

wardrobe (collection of costumes belonging to a theatrical company)

population; universe ((statistics) the entire aggregation of items from which samples can be drawn)

armamentarium (the collection of equipment and methods used in the practice of medicine)

art collection (a collection of art works)

backlog (an accumulation of jobs not done or materials not processed that are yet to be dealt with (especially unfilled customer orders for products or services))

battery (a collection of related things intended for use together)

block (a number or quantity of related things dealt with as a unit)

book; rule book (a collection of rules or prescribed standards on the basis of which decisions are made)

book (a collection of playing cards satisfying the rules of a card game)

bottle collection (a collection of bottles)

bunch; caboodle; lot (any collection in its entirety)

coin collection (a collection of coins)

collage (any collection of diverse things)

content; contents ((usually plural) everything that is included in a collection and that is held or included in something)

ensemble; tout ensemble (an assemblage of parts or details (as in a work of art) considered as forming a whole)

corpus (a collection of writings)

crop (a collection of people or things appearing together)

tenantry (tenants of an estate considered as a group)

findings (a collection of tools and other articles used by an artisan to make jewelry or clothing or shoes)

flagging (flagstones collectively)

flinders (bits and splinters and fragments)

pack (a complete collection of similar things)

deal; hand (the cards held in a card game by a given player at any given time)

long suit (in a hand, the suit having the most cards)

herbarium (a collection of dried plants that are mounted and systematically classified for study)

stamp collection (a collection of stamps)

statuary (statues collectively)

sum; sum total; summation (the final aggregate)

agglomeration (a jumbled collection or mass)

gimmickry (a collection of gimmicks)

nuclear club (the nations possessing nuclear weapons)

agglomerate; cumulation; cumulus; heap; mound; pile (a collection of objects laid on top of each other)

mass (an ill-structured collection of similar things (objects or people))

combination (a collection of things that have been combined; an assemblage of separate parts or qualities)

congregation (an assemblage of people or animals or things collected together)

hit parade (a collection of the best or most popular people or items of a given kind)

Judaica (materials relating to Judaism)

kludge (a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose (often used to refer to computing systems or software that has been badly put together))

library; program library; subroutine library ((computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use)

library (a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing)

mythology (myths collectively; the body of stories associated with a culture or institution or person)

biology; biota (all the plant and animal life of a particular region)

fauna; zoology (all the animal life in a particular region or period)

petting zoo (a collection of docile animals for children to pet and feed)

set (a group of things of the same kind that belong together and are so used)

Victoriana (collection of materials of or characteristic of the Victorian era)

category; class; family (a collection of things sharing a common attribute)

job lot (a miscellaneous collection of things sold together)

bundle; package; packet; parcel (a collection of things wrapped or boxed together)

defence; defense; defense lawyers; defense team (the defendant and his legal advisors collectively)

prosecution (the lawyers acting for the state to put the case against the defendant)

planting (a collection of plants (trees or shrubs or flowers) in a particular area)

signage (signs collectively (especially commercial signs or posters))

GAAP; generally accepted accounting principles (a collection of rules and procedures and conventions that define accepted accounting practice; includes broad guidelines as well as detailed procedures)

pantheon (all the gods of a religion)

Free World (anti-communist countries collectively)

Third World (underdeveloped and developing countries of Asia and Africa and Latin America collectively)

Europe (the nations of the European continent collectively)

Asia (the nations of the Asian continent collectively)

North America (the nations of the North American continent collectively)

Central America (the nations of Central America collectively)

South America (the nations of the South American continent collectively)

Oort cloud ((astronomy) a hypothetical huge collection of comets orbiting the sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto; perturbations (as by other stars) can upset a comet's orbit and may send it tumbling toward the sun)

galaxy (a splendid assemblage (especially of famous people))

extragalactic nebula; galaxy ((astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust)

fleet (a group of warships organized as a tactical unit)

fleet (group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership)

fleet (group of aircraft operating together under the same ownership)

repertoire; repertory (a collection of works (plays, songs, operas, ballets) that an artist or company can perform and do perform for short intervals on a regular schedule)

repertoire; repertory (the entire range of skills or aptitudes or devices used in a particular field or occupation)

assortment; miscellanea; miscellany; mixed bag; mixture; motley; potpourri; salmagundi; smorgasbord; variety (a collection containing a variety of sorts of things)

batch; clutch (a collection of things or persons to be handled together)

batch (all the loaves of bread baked at the same time)

rogue's gallery (a collection of pictures of criminals)

exhibition; expo; exposition (a collection of things (goods or works of art etc.) for public display)

convoy (a collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships)

traffic (the aggregation of things (pedestrians or vehicles) coming and going in a particular locality during a specified period of time)

air power; aviation (the aggregation of a country's military aircraft)

botany; flora; vegetation (all the plant life in a particular region or period)

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

menagerie (a collection of live animals for study or display)

data; information (a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn)

ana (a collection of anecdotes about a person or place)

mail; post (any particular collection of letters or packages that is delivered)

treasure (a collection of precious things)

treasure trove (any collection of valuables that is discovered)

trinketry (trinkets and other ornaments of dress collectively)

troponomy; troponymy (the place names of a region or a language considered collectively)

smithereens (a collection of small fragments considered as a whole)

Instance hyponyms:

Nag Hammadi; Nag Hammadi Library (a collection of 13 ancient papyrus codices translated from Greek into Coptic that were discovered by farmers near the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945; the codices contain 45 distinct works including the chief sources of firsthand knowledge of Gnosticism)

Magi; Wise Men ((New Testament) the sages who visited Jesus and Mary and Joseph shortly after Jesus was born; the Gospel According to Matthew says they were guided by a star and brought gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh; because there were three gifts it is usually assumed that there were three of them)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A publication containing a variety of works

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

collection; compendium

Hypernyms ("collection" is a kind of...):

publication (a copy of a printed work offered for distribution)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "collection"):

anthology (a collection of selected literary passages)

archives (collection of records especially about an institution)

compilation; digest (something that is compiled (as into a single book or file))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Request for a sum of money

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

appeal; collection; ingathering; solicitation

Context example:

an appeal to raise money for starving children

Hypernyms ("collection" is a kind of...):

petition; postulation; request (a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "collection"):

whip-round ((British) solicitation of money usually for a benevolent purpose)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of gathering something together

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

aggregation; assembling; collecting; collection

Hypernyms ("collection" is a kind of...):

grouping (the activity of putting things together in groups)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "collection"):

agglomeration (the act of collecting in a mass; the act of agglomerating)

collation (assembling in proper numerical or logical sequence)

compilation; compiling (the act of compiling (as into a single book or file or list))

gather; gathering (the act of gathering something)

bottle collection (the activity of collecting bottles)

conchology; shell collecting (the collection and study of mollusc shells)

coin collecting; coin collection; numismatics; numismatology (the collection and study of money (and coins in particular))

pickup (the act or process of picking up or collecting from various places)

philately; stamp collecting; stamp collection (the collection and study of postage stamps)

tax collection (the collection of taxes)

Derivation:

collect (assemble or get together)

collect (get or bring together)

collect (get or gather together)

 Context examples 

A collection of two or more computers and associated devices that are linked together with communications equipment.

(Network Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

A small lump, swelling or collection of tissue.

(Nodule, NCI Thesaurus)

To illustrate the technology, the researchers at Lund University have successfully filmed how light — a collection of photons — travels a distance corresponding to the thickness of a paper.

(World's Fastest Film Camera, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The repository has stringent guidelines regarding the standardized collection, handling, storage and documentation of biological specimens.

(Cancer Biobank, NCI Thesaurus)

The meninges are a collection of membranes that line the central nervous system and help protect brain and spinal cord tissue from various forms of injury.

(Scientists watch the brain’s lining heal after a head injury, National Institutes of Health)

The tomb contains a mummy wrapped in linen, clay vessels, a collection of about 450 statues, and painted wooden funerary masks.

(Discovery of Two Tombs Dating Back 3,500 Years Announced in Egypt, VOA)

A collection of symptoms that include severe edema, proteinuria, and hypoalbuminemia; it is indicative of renal dysfunction.

(Nephrotic Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

The odors were taken from a collection of 128 odorous molecules with similar intensities, so that no one odor dominated.

(Humans Can Identify More Than 1 Trillion Smells, NIH, US)

The findings from this study highlight the value of using museum collections and molecular techniques to help understand historical patterns of human behavior.

(Extinction of Icelandic walrus coincides with Norse settlement, National Science Foundation)

At his signal, Freya darts across the lab room floor and sniffs a collection of small open mason jars.

(The Dog's Nose Knows Malaria, Kevin Enochs/VOA)