English
collection
Etymology

From Middle English colleccioun, collection, from Old French collection, from Latin collēctiō, from collēctus, from colligō ("collect together"), composed of con- + legō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-.

Pronunciation
  • IPA: /kəˈlɛkʃən/
Noun

collection

  1. A set of items or amount of material procured, gathered or presented together.
    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.
    This year's Summer Collection will include a wide range of evening wear.
    He has a superb coin collection.
    • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →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
    • 1887, Robert Bartholow, A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine:
      a purulent collection
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      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.
  2. (music) A set of pitch classes used by a composer.
  3. The activity of collecting.
    Collection of trash will occur every Thursday.
  4. (set theory, topology, analysis) A set of sets; used because such a thing is in general too large to comply with the formal definition of a set.
  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, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC ↗, book:
      We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.
  8. (UK) The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
  9. (Oxon, usually, in the plural) A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.
  10. The quality of being collected; calm composure.
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