collection

/kəˈlɛkʃən/

/kəˈlɛkʃən/

Other forms: collections

A collection is a group of things, often a group created by someone. For example, many kids have a collection of comic books.

Notice the word collect in collection. If you like to collect — that is, gather — things, chances are you might have a collection of some sort. Some common types of collections are of books, stamps, and dolls. You can also refer to a museum's "collection of art." While you might call a group of people a gathering, you would call a group of rare coins a collection.

Definitions of collection
  1. noun
    the act of gathering something together
    synonyms: aggregation, assembling, collecting
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    types:
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    agglomeration
    the act of collecting in a mass; the act of agglomerating
    collation
    assembling in proper numerical or logical sequence
    compilation, compiling
    the act of compiling (as into a single book or file or list)
    gather, gathering
    the act of gathering something
    bottle collection
    the activity of collecting bottles
    conchology, shell collecting
    the collection and study of mollusc shells
    coin collecting, coin collection, numismatics, numismatology
    the collection and study of money (and coins in particular)
    pickup
    the act or process of picking up or collecting from various places
    philately, stamp collecting, stamp collection
    the collection and study of postage stamps
    tax collection
    the collection of taxes
    centralisation, centralization
    gathering to a center
    harvest, harvest home, harvesting
    the gathering of a ripened crop
    garbage collection, garbage pickup, trash collection, trash pickup
    the collection and removal of garbage
    aerophilately
    the collection and study of airmail stamps
    type of:
    grouping
    the activity of putting things together in groups
  2. noun
    several things grouped together or considered as a whole
    synonyms: accumulation, aggregation, assemblage
    see moresee less
    examples:
    Nag Hammadi Library
    a collection of 13 ancient papyrus codices translated from Greek into Coptic that were discovered by farmers near the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945; the codices contain 45 distinct works including the chief sources of firsthand knowledge of Gnosticism
    Wise Men
    (New Testament) the sages who visited Jesus and Mary and Joseph shortly after Jesus was born; the Gospel According to Matthew says they were guided by a star and brought gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh; because there were three gifts it is usually assumed that there were three of them
    types:
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    procession
    the group action of a collection of people or animals or vehicles moving ahead in more or less regular formation
    pharmacopoeia
    a collection or stock of drugs
    string
    a collection of objects threaded on a single strand
    wardrobe
    collection of clothing belonging to one person
    wardrobe
    collection of costumes belonging to a theatrical company
    population, universe
    (statistics) the entire aggregation of items from which samples can be drawn
    armamentarium
    the collection of equipment and methods used in the practice of medicine
    art collection
    a collection of art works
    backlog
    an accumulation of jobs not done or materials not processed that are yet to be dealt with (especially unfilled customer orders for products or services)
    battery
    a collection of related things intended for use together
    block
    a number or quantity of related things dealt with as a unit
    book, rule book
    a collection of rules or prescribed standards on the basis of which decisions are made
    book
    a collection of playing cards satisfying the rules of a card game
    bottle collection
    a collection of bottles
    bunch, caboodle, lot
    any collection in its entirety
    coin collection
    a collection of coins
    collage
    any collection of diverse things
    content
    everything that is included in a collection and that is held or included in something
    ensemble, tout ensemble
    an assemblage of parts or details (as in a work of art) considered as forming a whole
    corpus
    a collection of writings
    crop
    a collection of people or things appearing together
    tenantry
    tenants of an estate considered as a group
    findings
    a collection of tools and other articles used by an artisan to make jewelry or clothing or shoes
    flagging
    flagstones collectively
    flinders
    bits and splinters and fragments
    pack
    a complete collection of similar things
    deal, hand
    the cards held in a card game by a given player at any given time
    long suit
    in a hand, the suit having the most cards
    herbarium
    a collection of dried plants that are mounted and systematically classified for study
    stamp collection
    a collection of stamps
    statuary
    statues collectively
    sum, sum total, summation
    the final aggregate
    agglomeration
    a jumbled collection or mass
    gimmickry
    a collection of gimmicks
    nuclear club
    the nations possessing nuclear weapons
    agglomerate, cumulation, cumulus, heap, mound, pile
    a collection of objects laid on top of each other
    mass
    an ill-structured collection of similar things (objects or people)
    combination
    a collection of things that have been combined; an assemblage of separate parts or qualities
    congregation
    an assemblage of people or animals or things collected together
    hit parade
    a collection of the best or most popular people or items of a given kind
    Judaica
    historical and literary materials relating to Judaism
    kludge
    a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose (often used to refer to computing systems or software that has been badly put together)
    library, program library, subroutine library
    (computing) a collection of standard programs and subroutines that are stored and available for immediate use
    library
    a collection of literary documents, records, or media kept for reference or borrowing
    mythology
    myths collectively; the body of stories associated with a culture or institution or person
    biology, biota
    all the plant and animal life of a particular region
    fauna, zoology
    all the animal life in a particular region or period
    petting zoo
    a collection of docile animals for children to pet and feed
    set
    a group of things of the same kind that belong together and are so used
    Victoriana
    collection of materials of or characteristic of the Victorian era
    category, class, family
    a collection of things sharing a common attribute
    job lot
    a miscellaneous collection of things sold together
    bundle, package, packet, parcel
    a collection of things wrapped or boxed together
    defence, defense, defense lawyers, defense team
    the defendant and his legal advisors collectively
    prosecution
    the lawyers acting for the state to put the case against the defendant
    planting
    a collection of plants (trees or shrubs or flowers) in a particular area
    signage
    signs collectively (especially commercial signs or posters)
    GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles
    a collection of rules and procedures and conventions that define accepted accounting practice; includes broad guidelines as well as detailed procedures
    pantheon
    all the gods of a religion
    Free World
    anti-communist countries collectively
    Third World
    underdeveloped and developing countries of Asia and Africa and Latin America collectively
    Europe
    the nations of the European continent collectively
    Asia
    the nations of the Asian continent collectively
    North America
    the nations of the North American continent collectively
    Central America
    the nations of Central America collectively
    South America
    the nations of the South American continent collectively
    Oort cloud
    (astronomy) a hypothetical huge collection of comets orbiting the sun far beyond the orbit of Pluto; perturbations (as by other stars) can upset a comet's orbit and may send it tumbling toward the sun
    galaxy
    a splendid assemblage (especially of famous people)
    extragalactic nebula, galaxy
    (astronomy) a collection of star systems; any of the billions of systems each having many stars and nebulae and dust
    fleet
    a group of warships organized as a tactical unit
    fleet
    group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership
    fleet
    group of aircraft operating together under the same ownership
    repertoire, repertory
    a collection of works (plays, songs, operas, ballets) that an artist or company can perform and do perform for short intervals on a regular schedule
    repertoire, repertory
    the entire range of skills or aptitudes or devices used in a particular field or occupation
    assortment, medley, miscellanea, miscellany, mixed bag, mixture, motley, potpourri, salmagundi, smorgasbord, variety
    a collection containing a variety of sorts of things
    batch, clutch
    a collection of things or persons to be handled together
    batch
    all the loaves of bread baked at the same time
    rogue's gallery
    a collection of pictures of criminals
    exhibition, expo, exposition
    a collection of things (goods or works of art etc.) for public display
    convoy
    a collection of merchant ships with an escort of warships
    traffic
    the aggregation of things (pedestrians or vehicles) coming and going in a particular locality during a specified period of time
    air power, aviation
    the aggregation of a country's military aircraft
    botany, flora, vegetation
    all the plant life in a particular region or period
    jurisprudence, law
    the collection of rules imposed by authority
    menagerie
    a collection of live animals for study or display
    data, information
    a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn
    ana
    a collection of anecdotes about a person or place
    mail, post
    any particular collection of letters or packages that is delivered
    treasure
    a collection of precious things
    treasure trove
    any collection of valuables that is discovered
    trinketry
    trinkets and other ornaments of dress collectively
    troponomy, troponymy
    the place names of a region or a language considered collectively
    smithereens
    a collection of small fragments considered as a whole
    beads, string of beads
    several beads threaded together on a string
    flotilla
    a fleet of small craft
    flotilla
    a United States Navy fleet consisting of two or more squadrons of small warships
    dentition, teeth
    the kind and number and arrangement of teeth (collectively) in a person or animal
    haplotype
    (genetics) a combination of alleles (for different genes) that are located closely together on the same chromosome and that tend to be inherited together
    subpopulation
    a population that is part of a larger population
    grammatical category, syntactic category
    (grammar) a category of words having the same grammatical properties
    paradigm, substitution class
    the class of all items that can be substituted into the same position (or slot) in a grammatical sentence (are in paradigmatic relation with one another)
    loan collection
    a number of pictures loaned by their owners for exhibition
    disc pack, disk pack
    (computer science) a portable pack of magnetic disks used in a disk storage device
    deck, deck of cards, pack of cards
    a pack of 52 playing cards
    bridge hand
    the cards held in a game of bridge
    strong suit
    a long suit including high cards
    poker hand
    the 5 cards held in a game of poker
    Elgin Marbles
    a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures and fragments of architecture created by Phidias; chiefly from the Parthenon in Athens
    bunch, clump, cluster, clustering
    a grouping of a number of similar things
    ball, chunk, clod, clump, glob, lump
    a compact mass
    compost heap, compost pile
    a heap of manure and vegetation and other organic residues that are decaying to become compost
    dunghill, midden, muckheap, muckhill
    a heap of dung or refuse
    logjam
    an immovable mass of logs blocking a river
    shock
    a bushy thick mass (especially hair)
    scrapheap
    pile of discarded metal
    shock
    a pile of sheaves of grain set on end in a field to dry; stalks of Indian corn set up in a field
    slagheap
    pile of waste matter from coal mining etc
    stack
    an orderly pile
    funeral pyre, pyre
    wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite
    woodpile
    a pile or stack of wood to be used for fuel
    amalgam
    a combination or blend of diverse things
    color scheme, colour scheme
    a planned combination of colors
    complexion
    a combination that results from coupling or interlinking
    bibliotheca
    a collection of books
    public library
    a nonprofit library maintained for public use
    rental collection
    a collection of books that can be rented by readers in return for a small daily fee
    classical mythology
    the system of mythology of the Greeks and Romans together; much of Roman mythology (especially the gods) was borrowed from the Greeks
    Norse mythology
    the mythology of Scandinavia (shared in part by Britain and Germany) until the establishment of Christianity
    singleton
    a set containing a single member
    brace, pair
    a set of two similar things considered as a unit
    triad, trio, triple, triplet
    a set of three similar things considered as a unit
    quadruple, quadruplet, quartet, quartette
    a set of four similar things considered as a unit
    quintet, quintette, quintuple, quintuplet
    a set of five similar things considered as a unit
    sestet, sextet, sextette
    a set of six similar things considered as a unit
    septet, septette
    a set of seven similar things considered as a unit
    octet, octette
    a set of eight similar things considered as a unit
    avifauna
    the birds of a particular region or period
    chess set
    checkerboard and a set of 32 pieces used to play chess
    manicure set
    a set of implements used to manicure
    brass family
    (music) the family of brass instruments
    violin family
    (music) the family of bowed stringed instruments
    woodwind family
    (music) the family of woodwind instruments
    stamp
    a type or class
    join, sum, union
    a set containing all and only the members of two or more given sets
    Cartesian product, intersection, product
    the set of elements common to two or more sets
    sex
    either of the two categories (male or female) into which most organisms are divided
    field
    all the competitors in a particular contest or sporting event
    field
    all of the horses in a particular horse race
    field
    (computer science) a set of one or more adjacent characters comprising a unit of information
    bracket
    a category falling within certain defined limits
    declension
    a class of nouns or pronouns or adjectives in Indo-European languages having the same (or very similar) inflectional forms
    conjugation
    a class of verbs having the same inflectional forms
    conjugation
    the complete set of inflected forms of a verb
    denomination
    a class of one kind of unit in a system of numbers or measures or weights or money
    histocompatibility complex
    a family of fifty or more genes on the sixth human chromosome that code for proteins on the surfaces of cells and that play a role in the immune response
    suite
    a matching set of furniture
    wisp
    a small bundle of straw or hay
    choir, consort
    a family of similar musical instrument playing together
    core, core group, nucleus
    a small group of indispensable persons or things
    portfolio
    a set of pieces of creative work collected to be shown to potential customers or employers
    spiral galaxy, spiral nebula
    a galaxy having a spiral structure; arms containing younger stars spiral out from old stars at the center
    score
    a set of twenty members
    threescore
    a set with 3 times 20 members
    synset
    a set of one or more synonyms
    armada
    a large fleet
    battle fleet
    a fleet of warships prepared for battle
    motor pool
    a fleet of military vehicles controlled by a single agency and available for use as needed
    grab bag
    an assortment of miscellaneous items
    witch's brew, witches' brew, witches' broth
    a fearsome mixture
    range
    a variety of different things or activities
    selection
    an assortment of things from which a choice can be made
    farrago, gallimaufry, hodgepodge, hotchpotch, melange, mingle-mangle, mishmash, oddments, odds and ends, omnium-gatherum, ragbag
    a motley assortment of things
    alphabet soup
    a confusing assortment
    schmear, schmeer, shmear
    (Yiddish) a batch of things that go together
    art exhibition
    an exhibition of art objects (paintings or statues)
    peepshow, raree-show
    an exhibition of pictures or objects viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass
    fair
    a competitive exhibition of farm products
    convoy
    a procession of land vehicles traveling together
    aggregate, congeries, conglomeration
    a sum total of many heterogenous things taken together
    air traffic
    traffic created by the movement of aircraft
    commuter traffic
    traffic created by people going to or returning from work
    foot traffic, pedestrian traffic
    people coming and going on foot
    vehicle traffic, vehicular traffic
    the aggregation of vehicles coming and going in a particular locality
    caravan, train, wagon train
    a procession (of wagons or mules or camels) traveling together in single file
    cavalcade
    a procession of people traveling by foot, horse, or vehicles
    march
    a procession of people walking together
    motorcade
    a procession of people traveling in motor cars
    parade
    a ceremonial procession including people marching
    cortege
    a funeral procession
    recession, recessional
    the withdrawal of the clergy and choir from the chancel to the vestry at the end of a church service
    browse
    vegetation (such as young shoots, twigs, and leaves) that is suitable for animals to eat
    brush, brushwood, coppice, copse, thicket
    a dense growth of bushes
    growth
    vegetation that has grown
    bush, chaparral, scrub
    dense vegetation consisting of stunted trees or bushes
    stand
    a growth of similar plants (usually trees) in a particular area
    forest, wood, woods
    the trees and other plants in a large densely wooded area
    shrubbery
    a collection of shrubs growing together
    garden
    the flowers or vegetables or fruits or herbs that are cultivated in a garden
    administrative law
    the body of rules and regulations and orders and decisions created by administrative agencies of government
    canon law, ecclesiastical law
    the body of codified laws governing the affairs of a Christian church
    civil law
    the body of laws established by a state or nation for its own regulation
    case law, common law, precedent
    a system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws
    international law, law of nations
    the body of laws governing relations between nations
    law of the land
    a phrase used in the Magna Carta to refer to the then established law of the kingdom (as distinct from Roman or civil law); today it refers to fundamental principles of justice commensurate with due process
    martial law
    the body of law imposed by the military over civilian affairs (usually in time of war or civil crisis); overrides civil law
    commercial law, law merchant, mercantile law
    the body of rules applied to commercial transactions; derived from the practices of traders rather than from jurisprudence
    military law
    the body of laws and rules of conduct administered by military courts for the discipline, trial, and punishment of military personnel
    Law of Moses, Mosaic law
    the laws (beginning with the Ten Commandments) that God gave to the Israelites through Moses; it includes many rules of religious observance given in the first five books of the Old Testament (in Judaism these books are called the Torah)
    Islamic law, sharia, sharia law, shariah, shariah law
    the code of law derived from the Quran and from the teachings and example of Mohammed
    statutory law
    the body of laws created by legislative statutes
    securities law
    the body of laws governing the issuance and selling of securities
    tax law
    the body of laws governing taxation
    stockpile
    a storage pile accumulated for future use
    accounting data
    all the data (ledgers and journals and spreadsheets) that support a financial statement; can be hard copy or machine readable
    metadata
    data about data
    raw data
    unanalyzed data; data not yet subjected to analysis
    fan mail
    mail sent to public figures from their admirers
    hate mail
    mail that expresses the writer's dislike or hatred (usually in offensive language)
    mailing
    mail sent by a sender at one time
    sampler
    an assortment of various samples
    wolf pack
    a group of submarines operating together in attacking enemy convoys
    Great Attractor
    a massive grouping of galaxies in the direction of Centaurus and Hydra whose gravitational attraction is believed to cause deviations in the paths of other galaxies
    Milky Way, Milky Way Galaxy, Milky Way System
    the galaxy containing the solar system; consists of millions of stars that can be seen as a diffuse band of light stretching across the night sky
    brier, brier patch, brierpatch
    tangled mass of prickly plants
    ground cover, groundcover
    low-growing plants planted in deep shade or on a steep slope where turf is difficult to grow
    type of:
    group, grouping
    any number of entities (members) considered as a unit
  3. noun
    a publication containing a variety of works
    synonyms: compendium
    see moresee less
    types:
    show 6 types...
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    anthology
    a collection of selected literary passages
    archives
    collection of records especially about an institution
    compilation, digest
    something that is compiled (as into a single book or file)
    divan, diwan
    a collection of Persian or Arabic poems (usually by one author)
    florilegium, garland, miscellany
    an anthology of short literary pieces and poems and ballads etc.
    omnibus
    an anthology of articles on a related subject or an anthology of the works of a single author
    type of:
    publication
    a copy of a printed work offered for distribution
  4. noun
    request for a sum of money
    synonyms: appeal, ingathering, solicitation
    see moresee less
    types:
    whip-round
    (British) solicitation of money usually for a benevolent purpose
    type of:
    petition, postulation, request
    a formal message requesting something that is submitted to an authority
Pronunciation
US

/kəˈlɛkʃən/
UK

/kəˈlɛkʃən/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘collection'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
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