adj.
- Constituting or amounting to a whole; total: aggregate sales in that market.
- Botany. Crowded or massed into a dense cluster.
- Composed of a mixture of minerals separable by mechanical means.
- A total considered with reference to its constituent parts; a gross amount: "An empire is the aggregate of many states under one common head" (Edmund Burke).
- The mineral materials, such as sand or stone, used in making concrete.
v., -gat·ed, -gat·ing, -gates. (-gāt') v.tr.
- To gather into a mass, sum, or whole.
- To amount to; total.
To come together or collect in a mass or whole: "Some [bacteria]aggregate so closely as to mimic a multicellular organism" (Gina Kolata).
idiom:
in the aggregate
- Taken into account as a whole: Unit sales for December amounted in the aggregate to 100,000.
[Middle English aggregat, from Latin aggregātus, past participle of aggregāre, to add to : ad-, ad- + gregāre, to collect (from grex, greg-, flock).]
aggregately ag'gre·gate·ly adv.aggregation ag'gre·ga'tion n.
aggregative ag'gre·ga'tive adj.
aggregator ag'gre·ga'tor n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
