conglomerate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a composite rock made up of particles of varying size
    pudding stone.
  2. noun a group of diverse companies under common ownership and run as a single organization
    empire.
  3. verb collect or gather
    amass; gather; accumulate; cumulate; pile up.
    • Journals are accumulating in my office
    • The work keeps piling up
  4. adjective satellite composed of heterogeneous elements gathered into a mass
    • the conglomerate peoples of New England

WordNet

Con*glom"er*ate adjective
Etymology
L. conglomeratus, p.p. of conglomerare to roll together; con- + glomerare to wind into a ball. See Glomerate.
Definitions
  1. Gathered into a ball or a mass; collected together; concentrated; as, conglomerate rays of light.
    Beams of light when they are multiplied and conglomerate. Bacon.
    Fluids are separated in the liver and the other conglobate and conglomerate glands. Cheyne.
  2. (Bot.) Closely crowded together; densly clustered; as, conglomerate flowers. Gray.
  3. (Geol.) Composed of stones, pebbles, or fragments of rocks, cemented together.
Con*glom"er*ate noun
Definitions
  1. That which is heaped together in a mass or conpacted from various sources; a mass formed of fragments; collection; accumulation.
    A conglomerate of marvelous anecdotes, marvelously heaped together. Trench.
  2. (Geol.) A rock, composed or rounded fragments of stone cemented together by another mineral substance, either calcareous, siliceous, or argillaceous; pudding stone; -- opposed to agglomerate. See Breccia.
    A conglomerate, therefore, is simply gravel bound together by a cement. Lyell.
Con*glom"er*ate transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Conglomerated; present participle & verbal noun Conglomerating
Definitions
  1. To gather into a ball or round body; to collect into a mass.

Webster 1913