pile
Other forms: piled; piles; piling
A pile is a heap of stuff that keeps accumulating, like the dirty laundry in the back of your closet, or Uncle Scrooge’s money.
Pile can be used as a noun or a verb. If you pile rocks on top of each other, you will eventually have a...pile of rocks. Unlike the word stack, pile implies that your heap of stuff is fairly messy. It can also mean cram. When eight people pile into a car with only five seats, they’re likely to be pretty much squashed.
Definitions of pile
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a collection of objects laid on top of each other
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synonyms:
agglomerate, cumulation, cumulus, heap, mound
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types:
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compost heap, compost pile
a heap of manure and vegetation and other organic residues that are decaying to become compost
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dunghill, midden, muckheap, muckhill
a heap of dung or refuse
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scrapheap
pile of discarded metal
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shock
a pile of sheaves of grain set on end in a field to dry; stalks of Indian corn set up in a field
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slagheap
pile of waste matter from coal mining etc
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stack
an orderly pile
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funeral pyre, pyre
wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite
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woodpile
a pile or stack of wood to be used for fuel
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stockpile
a storage pile accumulated for future use
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hayrick, haystack, rick
a stack of hay
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type of:
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accumulation, aggregation, assemblage, collection
several things grouped together or considered as a whole
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(often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
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synonyms:
batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad
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types:
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barrage, deluge, flood, flurry, inundation, torrent
an overwhelming number or amount
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haymow
a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation
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type of:
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large indefinite amount, large indefinite quantity
an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude
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barrage, deluge, flood, flurry, inundation, torrent
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a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit)
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place or lay as if in a pile
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arrange in stacks
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press tightly together or cram
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fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)
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the yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave
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battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta
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synonyms:
galvanic pile, voltaic pile
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type of:
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battery, electric battery
a device that produces electricity; may have several primary or secondary cells arranged in parallel or series
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battery, electric battery
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a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure
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types:
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sheath pile, sheet pile, sheet piling
a pile in a row of piles driven side by side to retain earth or prevent seepage
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sheath pile, sheet pile, sheet piling
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a nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy
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synonyms:
atomic pile, atomic reactor, chain reactor
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type of:
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nuclear reactor, reactor
(physics) any of several kinds of apparatus that maintain and control a nuclear reaction for the production of energy or artificial elements
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nuclear reactor, reactor
Pronunciation
US
/paɪl/
UK
/paɪl/
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