conglomeratenoun/kənˈɡlɒm.(ə.)ɹɪt/

• 1

  A cluster of heterogeneous things.

  • They [miracles in the canonical gospels] are held, too, together by his [Jesus Christ's] strong and central personality, which does not leave them a conglomerate of marvellous anecdotes accidentally heaped together, but parts of a great organic whole, of which every part is in vital coherence with every other.
• 2

  businessA corporation formed by the combination of several smaller corporations whose activities are unrelated to the corporation's primary activity.

  • The 2017 list includes 80 financial conglomerates with the head of group located in the European Union or European Economic Area, one financial conglomerate with the head of group in Switzerland, one in Bermuda, and two in the United States.
• 3

  geographygeologynatural-sciencesA rock consisting of gravel or pebbles embedded in a matrix.

  • When sandstone is coarse-grained, it is usually called grit. If the grains are rounded, and large enough to be called pebbles, it becomes a conglomerate, or pudding-stone, which may consist of pieces of one or of many different kinds of rock. A conglomerate, therefore, is simply gravel bound together by a cement.
  • Calcareous lias, slate, and trap are still to be found there, rising from layers of conglomerate like teeth out of a gum. But the pickaxe has broken up and levelled those bristling, rugged peaks which were once the homes of the eagles.

conglomerateadj/kənˈɡlɒm.(ə.)ɹɪt/

• 1

  Clustered together into a mass.

  • conglomerate flowers
  • The Beames of Light, when they are multiplied and conglomerate, generate Heat; which is a different Action, from the Action of Sight: […]
• 2

  geographygeologynatural-sciencesComposed of fragments of rock, pebbles, or stones cemented together.

  • The Santa Margarita Formation in the southern Temblor Range, composed of conglomerate and subordinate sandstone, evolved as a large complex of fan deltas and submarine fans in late Miocene time.
  • He also documented some intercalated mottled reddish clays and marls, and the upper horizons containing bluish clays with conglomerate beds.
• 3

  Made up of heterogeneous elements; composite.

  • I sat down on a step for a while to get over it, with my head in my hands and that awful conglomerate sound in my ears all the time.

conglomerateverb/kənˈɡlɒm.əˌɹeɪt/

• 1

  To combine together into a larger mass.

  • [V]apors are never attracted or drawn up above the middle Region of the Air; for that the cold Air there, by thickning and conglomerating them, preſently turn them into clouds: and thence proceeds Miſts, Rains, Snows, Hayls, &c.
  • "In less than an hour," he said, looking up to the sun's disc, which was then feebly struggling through a dim mass of conglomerating clouds; "in less than an hour you shall be fully satisfied and amply revenged."
• 2

  businessTo combine together into a larger corporation.

  • Some firms conglomerated with suppliers of intermediate inputs and the railroad to carry their products.
  • The hallmark of the late twentieth century in the media industries (and adjacent/overlapping territories, such as the Internet) was the weakening of boundaries that previously distinguished arenas, enterprises, institutions, and professions. […] Entertainment media—the rapidly conglomerating TV/film/cable/publishing/music/sports/Internet megasauruses that can be seen grazing in Los Angeles and New York—represent the pattern even more dramatically than in the case of journalism.