different between amalgam vs melange

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

From French mélange, from Middle French mélange, meslange, from Old French meslance, meslinges (“set of diverse elements”), derived from mescler (“to mingle, mix up”) (modern French mêler), from Vulgar Latin *miscul?re, from Latin misce? (“mix”) + -inges, a suffix from Frankish *-ingo (“-ing”). More at mix, -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??l?n?/, /m??l???/, /me??l?n?/, /me??l???/

Noun

melange (plural melanges)

1. A mixture of different things; a disordered mixture.

   The room was a melange of comic books and posters.

2. A Viennese coffee speciality, half steamed milk and half coffee.
3. (geology) A large-scale breccia formed in the accretionary wedge over a subductional environment.

Alternative forms

• mélange

Synonyms

• (collection of a variety of things): assortment, farrago, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, mingle-mangle, mishmash, mixture, omnium-gatherum, ragbag
• See also Thesaurus:hodgepodge

Translations

Anagrams

• gleeman