pileup

noun

pile·​up ˈpī(-ə)l-ˌəp How to pronounce pileup (audio)
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

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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
No offense, but until the Chargers unearth a way to penetrate the goal line, this season could soon replicate last year’s 5-12 pileup. Jay Paris, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024 Instead, there’s an eventual pileup of scheming contrivances that require us to believe a character painted all along as sweetly uncomplicated was really harboring the deviousness of a criminal mastermind. Dennis Harvey, Variety, 29 Oct. 2024 Yet what grounds the story amid the pileup of sci-fi terms and lore is the convincingly intense bond that these male protagonists have nurtured. Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2024 Post Post Share Save Buy Copies Print With tens of billions invested in AI last year and leading players such as OpenAI looking for trillions more, the tech industry is racing to add to the pileup of generative AI models. Bhaskar Chakravorti, Harvard Business Review, 3 May 2024 See all Example Sentences for pileup 

Word History

First Known Use

1900, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of pileup was in 1900

Dictionary Entries Near pileup

Cite this Entry

“Pileup.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pileup. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!