| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| amass |
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| SYLLABICATION: | a·mass |
| PRONUNCIATION: |   -m s |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: a·massed, a·mass·ing, a·mass·es
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To gather for oneself, as for one's pleasure or profit: amassed a fortune. See synonyms at gather. 2. To accumulate or assemble a large quantity of: “The astronomers had amassed compelling evidence that the galaxies indeed were speeding away from the earth and from each other” (George Johnson, New York Times March 8, 1988). | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To come together; collect. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, to accumulate, from Old French amasser, to assemble : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see ad–) + masser, to gather together (from Latin massa, lump, mass; see mass). | | OTHER FORMS: | a·massa·ble —ADJECTIVE
a·masser —NOUN
a·massment —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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