amalgam
/əˈmæl.ɡəm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.85 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "[…] nor must we overlook, in quite recent times, the ingenious "Dukedog", a little 4-4-0 (officially 90XX class) whose Victorian lineaments arise from an economical amalgam of obsolete "Duke" and "Bulldog" components."
- "This was the Ambergate, Nottingham & Boston & Eastern Junction Railway, an amalgam of a number of separate schemes put forward in 1845, which secured its Act on July 16, 1846."
- "A church where spirit, pain, and joy formed a holy amalgam and were righteously acknowledged out loud."
- "gold t’amalgam with some six of mercury"
- "[…] I had once occaſion to diſtil in a ſmall Retort ſome Gold amalgamed vvith ſuch a fine and ſubtile Mercury, that being (vvithout the addition of any Salt) put to the Gold in the cold, they preſently grevv hot together."
Etymology
From Medieval Latin amalgama (“mercury alloy”), from Arabic اَلْمَلْغَم (al-malḡam, “emollient poultice or unguent for sores”), from Ancient Greek μάλαγμα (málagma, “emollient; malleable material”), from μαλάσσω (malássō, “to soften”), from μαλακός (malakós, “soft”). Doublet of malagma. For the verb, compare French amalgamer.