Make Your Point: CONGLOMERATE

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > CONGLOMERATE

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pronounce CONGLOMERATE:

The verb is "kun GLOM er ate," as in "These three companies conglomerated into one."

And the adjective and noun are "kun GLOM er ut," as in "These are conglomerate pebbles" and "They'll break that conglomerate into several companies."

connect this word to others:

The word conglomerate, meaning "to gather, to cluster together, to form into an organized mass," traces back to the Latin glomerare, meaning "to collect, or to roll up into a ball."

Glomerare also gave us the equally ugly word __glom_____, meaning "to gather into one cluster that's often messy or disorganized." Can you recall that one?

Disappointingly, glomerare is unrelated to glom, as in "Stop trying to glom onto Josie's talent." It turns out that glom derives from a Scottish word for "grab, consume, or handle awkwardly."

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Conglomerate" comes from the Latin conglomerare, which meant "to gather into a ball together." Conglomerare breaks down into "com-" ("with or together") and glomerare ("to collect, to roll into a ball").

Since the 1600s, we've used "conglomerate" both literally and figuratively to mean "to gather into a ball or a cluster, or to form into a single organized thing."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

When you pronounce "conglomerate" as "kun GLOM er ate," it's a verb, both the transitive kind ("They conglomerated their companies") and the intransitive kind ("The companies conglomerated").

And when you pronounce it "kun GLOM er ut," it's either an adjective (as in "The companies decided to stay conglomerate") or a noun (as in "The companies decided to stay a conglomerate").

Other forms:

The other verb forms are "conglomerated" and "conglomerating."

If you need a noun that very clearly is a noun (as opposed to the noun "conglomerate," which could be misread as a verb or an adjective), there's "conglomeration."

If you need an adjective that very clearly is an adjective, several are available and hoo boy, are they ugly: "conglomeratic," "conglomeritic," and "conglomeratory."

how to use it:

Pick the formal, semi-common, unpleasant-sounding word "conglomerate" when you want to strike a cold, businesslike tone as you describe things that clump together.

Say that things (such as mud, armies, companies, noises, or impressions) conglomerate, or that they conglomerate into some kind of whole or mass.

examples:

"These Rose leaves were carried carefully to each home, and were packed in stone jars with alternate layers of brown or scant maple sugar. Soon all conglomerated into a gummy, brown, close-grained, not over alluring substance to the vision, which was known among the children by the unromantic name of 'Rose tobacco.'"
— Alice Morse Earle, Old-Time Gardens, Newly Set Forth, 1901

"In an era when most multinational firms have given up their old conglomerating ways, Jardines retains a panoply of seemingly unconnected businesses. With 76,000 employees in 22 countries, the company operates the eighth largest insurance brokerage in the world, a sizable construction firm, an investment bank, and Mandarin Oriental, a leading chain of hotels from San Francisco to Bangkok."
— Staff, Time, 11 April 1988

has this page helped you understand "conglomerate"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "conglomerate" without saying "unify" or "team up."

try it out:

In the Wall Street Journal, Jason Gay pointed out that back in the 1960s, watching sports on TV "meant tweaking the rabbit ears with tin foil or asking your uncle to hold the antenna until the fourth quarter was done." Now, Gay says, it means "using Wi-Fi to livestream Thursday Night Football from a multinational tech conglomerate that also overnights toilet paper and garden gnomes."

Which I think is a hilarious way to refer to Amazon.

Could you explain what the difference is, in both meaning and tone, between calling Amazon a "conglomerate" instead of just a "company"?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "What Are You Implying?"

Build your word-finding muscle as you reach for synonyms with various implications.

For example, what's a synonym for "living thing" that
1. ...implies that someone made it?
2. ...implies that it simply exists?
3. ...implies that it has an intangible essence?

Your answers could be 1. "creature," 2. "being," and 3. "soul."

Try these today:

What's a synonym for "worn-out" that
1. ...implies that something has lost its color or brightness?
2. ...implies that something has started to come apart at the edges?
3. ...implies that something has endured a great deal of use over time?

To see some possible answers, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of CONGLOMERATE could be

A. SEPARATE.
B. INFILTRATE.
C. INCORPORATE.

2. According to the Wall Street Journal, "McCormick will morph from _____ spices and condiments company into a... conglomerate."

A. a popular
B. a narrowly focused
C. an environmentally conscious

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
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How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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