pileup

noun

pile·​up ˈpī(-ə)l-ˌəp 

1

: a collision involving usually several motor vehicles

2

a

: a jammed tangled mass or pile (as of motor vehicles or people) resulting from collision or accumulation

b

: accumulation

Synonyms

• accretion
• accumulation
• assemblage
• collection
• cumulation
• cumulus
• gathering
• lodgment
• lodgement

Examples of pileup in a Sentence

A five-car pileup slowed traffic.

a pileup of e-mail messages that needed to be dealt with

Recent Examples on the Web

Coupled with last year’s deadly 72-vehicle pileup on Interstate 55 in central Illinois shrouded in blinding dust, these are not freak occurrences but harbingers of an escalating environmental crisis fueled by climate change and unsustainable farming practices. —Chicago Tribune, 25 May 2024

Three people were critically injured in a three-car pileup Wednesday in Kansas City after a Jeep Wrangler lost a tire in the middle of the road. —Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 23 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1900, in the meaning defined at sense 1