Word of the Day
: August 8, 2019aggregate
playWhat It Means
1 : a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another
2 : the whole sum or amount : sum total
aggregate in Context
The university's various departments spent an aggregate of 1.2 million dollars in advertising last year.
"Their bill would require companies that collect user data to tell consumers and regulators what they collect, how they make money off it and how much it's worth—in aggregate and broken down by users." — James Condliffe, The New York Times, 1 July 2019
Did You Know?
We added aggregate to our flock of Latin borrowings in the 15th century. It descends from aggregāre ("to cause to flock together" or "to join together"), a Latin verb made up of the prefix ad- (which means "to," and which usually changes to ag- before a g) and greg- or grex (meaning "flock, herd, or group"). Greg- also gave us congregate, gregarious, and segregate. Aggregate is commonly employed in the phrase "in the aggregate," which means "considered as a whole." Aggregate also has some specialized senses. For example, it is used to describe a mass of minerals formed into a rock, and materials like sand or gravel that are used to form concrete, mortar, or plaster.
