From Middle English *amassen (found only as Middle English massen), from Anglo-Norman amasser, from Medieval Latin amassāre, from ad + massa ("lump, mass").

• (RP, America) IPA: /əˈmæs/

amass (amasses, present participle amassing; simple past and past participle amassed)

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

3. (intransitive) To accumulate; to assemble.

• (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

• French: amasser, amasser (intransitive)
• German: ansammeln, zusammensammeln, zusammenklauben, anhäufen
• Portuguese: amontoar
• Russian: копи́ть
• Spanish: amasar, acumular

amass (plural amasses)

1. (obsolete) A large number of things collected or piled together.

   Synonyms: mass, heap, pile

   • 1624, Henry Wotton, “The Seate, and the Worke”, in The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC ↗, I. part, page 38 ↗:

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

2. (obsolete) The act of amassing.