Merge

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /mɜːd͡ʒ/

Definitions

1. To combine two or more things into a single unified entity
2. To unite distinct entities or groups into a singular form, effectively creating a harmonious blend of the separate parts involved
3. To join two or more elements so they become a single unit

Etymology: The verb "merge" comes straight from Latin "mergō," which meant to dip, plunge or sink something under liquid. The image is literal: a thing dropped into water and submerged. English took the word in that physical sense, and the idea of overwhelming or swallowing up, as a river might absorb a smaller stream, followed the same line of thought. The leap from sinking to combining is the step that matters. When one body is plunged into another and disappears, the two become indistinguishable, and English users applied that picture to joining separate things into a single whole. The modern sense of blending companies, roads, or files into one unit grows out of that submersion image rather than out of any notion of mixing or fitting together.

Synonyms: combine, unite, blend, join, fuse

Antonyms: separate, divide, split