Conglomerated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Made up of a variety of different pieces combined into one
2. Formed by the accumulation and blending of distinct elements into a unified structure
3. Composed of multiple diverse elements merged together as a single entity

Etymology: Latin "conglomerare" meant "to wind into a ball," built from "com-" ("together") and "glomus," a ball of thread or yarn. Something conglomerated was literally rolled or wound into one mass, and the modern sense keeps that image of separate strands forming a single ball. Geologists applied the same idea to a rock made of rounded pebbles fused in a matrix, which is why a conglomerate stone looks like many different stones cemented into one. "Conglomerated" is the past tense of the verb, so it describes things that have been pressed or joined into a single body. The later business sense, a company made of many unrelated firms, draws on that same picture of disparate pieces bundled together.

Synonyms: aggregated, combined

Antonyms: separated, divided