# aggregation

/ˌæɡɹəˈɡeɪʃən/ (US) · /ˌæɡɹɪɡˈeɪʃən/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/aggregation
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. the act of collecting

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic

the act of gathering different things together into one group or total.

For teachers: the process of collecting or gathering separate parts into a single mass, sum, or whole.

- The aggregation of data from different websites helps us compare prices easily.
- The aggregation of individual consumer preferences into a single market trend requires sophisticated statistical modelling.

Usage: Often used as an uncountable noun when referring to the process itself.

### 2. a group or mass

noun · CEFR C1 · Academic

a group of things that have been collected together.

For teachers: a collection of particulars or individuals considered as a single unit or aggregate.

- The crowd was just a large aggregation of people waiting for the bus.
- The final report was an aggregation of various studies conducted over the last decade.

Usage: Commonly used as a countable noun in this sense.

### 3. computing/programming

noun · CEFR C2 · Technical

a way to organize data where one object contains other objects but does not own them.

For teachers: a specific type of object composition in software engineering where one object contains others without implying exclusive ownership.

- In this software design, the department is an aggregation of several employees.
- The developer chose aggregation over inheritance to ensure that the child objects could exist independently of the parent container.

Usage: Used specifically in object-oriented programming contexts.

### 4. linguistics

noun · CEFR C2 · Technical

combining different parts of a sentence to make it shorter and clearer.

For teachers: a component of natural language generation involving the combination of multiple syntactic elements into a single structure.

- Aggregation helps a computer turn two short sentences into one longer, natural sentence.
- Without effective aggregation, the generated text would appear repetitive and lack the cohesive flow of human speech.

Teaching tip: This is a highly specialized term in computational linguistics; general learners will rarely encounter it.

## Examples

- The aggregation of data helps us see the bigger picture.
- The website provides an aggregation of news stories from several different international sources.
- In biological systems, the aggregation of individual cells into a complex colony allows for specialized functions that a single organism could not perform alone.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.