collect
/ˈkɑlɪkt/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.37 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To accumulate (a number of similar or related objects), particularly for a hobby or recreation.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Suzanne collected all the papers she had laid out."
- "The team uses special equipment to collect data on temperature, wind speed and rainfall."
- "The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of three institutions collecting tropical plants for the National Cancer Institute in hopes of finding new drugs for treatment."
- "Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame."
- "At first, I swept the lowest-growing plants, collecting a variety of mostly chrysomelids and curculionids and even one Agrilus sp., before moving to beating along the sunny edges of the patches of taller shrubs and collecting similar species (but no Agrilus sp.)."
- "A bank collects a monthly payment on a client's new car loan. A mortgage company collects a monthly payment on a house."
Etymology
From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɑlɪkt/
- British English: /ˈkɒlɪkt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
collects (present, singular)
collecting (participle, present)
collected (participle, past)
collected (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
collected (first person, past)
collectest (archaic, present)
collected (past, second person)
collectedst (archaic, past)
collecteth (archaic, present)
collected (past, singular)