Amalgamate and concentrate both gather things together, but toward different ends. Amalgamate is to merge several things — especially organizations — into one combined body. Concentrate is to bring things together in one place, to make something denser, or to focus attention. Amalgamate fuses bodies into one; concentrate draws things to a centre or packs them tighter.
Both pull inward, but one makes a single body and the other makes a dense point. Amalgamate, from amalgam (a mercury alloy), merges separate bodies into one whole under a single name. Concentrate, from Latin com- 'together' and centrum 'centre', draws scattered things to one central point — or packs a substance denser, or gathers the mind on one task. Two firms amalgamate into one company; sunlight is concentrated to a burning point through a lens. One unites bodies; the other intensifies by gathering.
amalgamate
To amalgamate is to combine several distinct things into a single larger whole — most often companies, institutions, or groups. The word comes from amalgam, an alloy of mercury with another metal, and it keeps that flavour: the parts bond into one body but often stay recognizable within it, the way stones stay visible in a wall. When firms amalgamate they dissolve into a new combined entity. It is a formal word, a close cousin of merge and consolidate, and the quiet opposite of forces that disperse.
concentrate
To concentrate is to gather toward one centre until it is strong — from the Latin com- 'together' and centrum 'centre'. Scattered forces concentrate at a border; a reader concentrates on a page, pulling stray attention to one point; boiling concentrates a juice by driving off its water. As a noun, a concentrate is what is left when the water is gone: the same substance, no longer spread thin. To consolidate holdings is close, but concentrate keeps the sense of intensity growing as things gather.
| amalgamate | concentrate | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | merge several organizations into one | gather to one point; make denser; focus |
| The point is | to form a single body | to intensify by gathering |
| Register | formal, institutional | neutral, everyday to technical |
| Often with | companies, councils, unions | attention, power, forces, a solution |
| Noun | amalgamation | concentration |
| Example | The firms amalgamated. | Concentrate the light. |
Ask whether the point is a single body or a dense centre. Amalgamate fuses several bodies into one under a name — a corporate merger. Concentrate draws things to one point to make them stronger or denser, like sunlight pulled to a burning dot through a lens. If bodies merge into one, that is amalgamate; if things are gathered to a centre to intensify them, that is concentrate.
amalgamate
- iThe two boroughs amalgamated into a single authority.
- iiSeveral firms amalgamated under one holding company.
- iiiThe unions amalgamated to negotiate as one.
concentrate
- iThe lens concentrates the sunlight into a single hot point.
- iiTry to concentrate on one task at a time.
- iiiWealth became concentrated in a few hands.
Amalgamate always makes one body from several; concentrate gathers things to a point to intensify, focus or thicken them, and need not make a single unit at all. Concentrate also means to give full attention (concentrate on your work) and, as a noun, a thickened substance (orange concentrate) — senses amalgamate never touches. They overlap only in the loose idea of drawing things together.