Word of the Day for Friday June 3, 2005 agglomeration \uh-glom-uh-RAY-shuhn\, noun: 1. The act or process of collecting in a mass; a heaping together. 2. A jumbled cluster or mass of usually varied elements. Female biologists such as Lynn Margulis have suggested that symbiosis is the origin of complex life and that, if artificial intelligence comes about, it will do so by an agglomeration and binding up of functions, rather than through some Frankensteinian hauling down of a single power switch. --Roz Kaveney, "The Eight Technologies of Otherness," [1]New Statesman, January 9, 1998 Upon closer inspection, it revealed itself to be an agglomeration of differently shaped and colored prescription eyeglasses, inserted into a thin wall built in front of a window. --Susan Harris, "Jean Shin at Frederieke Taylor," [2]Art in America, October, 2004 On flat farmland outside the town of Paulding, Ohio, sits an agglomeration of storage tanks, conveyors and long, rotating kilns that burn 60,000 tons of hazardous waste a year. --David Bowermaster, "The cement makers' long sweet ride," [3]U.S. News & World Report, July 19, 1993 _________________________________________________________ Agglomeration is the noun form of agglomerate, "to gather into a ball or mass," which derives from the past participle of Latin agglomerare, "to mass together; to heap up," from ad- + glomerare, "to form into a ball," from glomus, glomer-, "ball." References 1. http://www.newstatesman.com/ 2. http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/ 3. http://www.usnews.com/ Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=agglomeration