Combine

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /kəmˈbaɪn/

Definitions

1. To join or merge two or more things together into a single entity or mixture
2. To bring two or more elements together into a unified whole
3. To unite separate parts or ingredients into a single entity

Etymology: Latin "bini" meant "two by two" or "in pairs," so the Latin verb "combinare" originally carried the sense of yoking things into pairs. The prefix "con-" meant "together," so the picture is of things being bound up two at a time, a literal pairing that later widened into the general idea of uniting anything at all. The verb reached English through Middle French "combiner," and Middle English "combynyn" shows it arriving in the medieval period, when it still carried that sense of uniting or yoking. Its meaning gradually broadened from the physical act of binding things together into the everyday sense of joining or mixing separate things.

Synonyms: merge, unite, blend, amalgamate, fuse

Antonyms: separate, divide, disconnect