different between amalgam vs assortment

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin amalgama (“mercury alloy”), from Arabic ???????????? (al-mal?am, “emollient poultice or unguent for sores”), from Ancient Greek ??????? (málagma, “emollient; malleable material”), from ??????? (maláss?, “to soften”), from ??????? (malakós, “soft”). Doublet of malagma. For the verb, compare French amalgamer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??mæl.??m/
• Hyphenation: a?mal?gam

Noun

amalgam (countable and uncountable, plural amalgams)

1. (metallurgy) An alloy containing mercury.
2. A combination of different things.
3. One of the ingredients in an alloy.

Synonyms

• alloy, blend, combo, compound, conglomerate, mixture

Related terms

• amalgamate
• amalgamation

Translations

Verb

amalgam (third-person singular simple present amalgams, present participle amalgaming, simple past and past participle amalgamed)

1. (archaic, transitive, intransitive) To amalgamate.
   • a. 1691, Robert Boyle, An Essay on the Porousness of Solid Bodies

     I had once occasion to distill in a small retort some gold amalgamed with such a fine and subtile mercur

   • 1610, Ben Jonson, The Alchemist

     gold t'amalgam with some six of mercury

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “amalgam”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• David Barthelmy (1997–2021) , “Amalgam”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database
• “amalgam”, in Mindat.org?^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2021.
• “amalgam”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• malagma

Romanian

Etymology

From French amalgame, from Latin amalgama.

Noun

amalgam n (plural amalgame)

1. amalgam

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /am?l?a?m/
• Hyphenation: a?mal?gam

Noun

amàlg?m m (Cyrillic spelling ?????????)

1. amalgam

Declension

Swedish

Noun

amalgam n

1. amalgam

Declension

English

Etymology

assort +? -ment

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??s??tm?nt/

Noun

assortment (plural assortments)

1. A collection of varying but related items.

   This box has an assortment of chocolates. There's a picture on the cover so you know which is which.

Synonyms

• diversity, Whitman's sampler
• See also Thesaurus:hodgepodge

Translations