merger

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈmɜː.d͡ʒə/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) enPR: mûrʹjər, IPA^(key): /ˈmɝ.d͡ʒɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: merg‧er

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

English merge

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzijos

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English merger

From merge + -er.

Noun

merger (plural mergers)

1. One that merges.

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman merger (verb used as noun).

Noun

merger (plural mergers)

1. The act or process of merging two or more parts into a single unit.

   Club mergers reduced the number of teams by half

2. (economics) The legal union of two or more corporations into a single entity, typically assets and liabilities being assumed by the buying party.
   • 2025 February 13, Juliana Liu and Junko Ogura, “Carmakers Nissan and Honda call off merger talks”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The company has had some success with its EV offerings, such as the Nissan Leaf, an asset it brought to the table in merger discussions.
     EV development costs have created a powerful incentive for carmakers to explore mergers as a way to share the financial burden, according to analysts.

3. (law) An absorption of one or more estate(s) or contract(s) into one other, all being held by the same owner; of several counts of accusation into one judgement, etc.
4. (phonology) A type of sound change where two or more sounds merge into one.

   the cot-caught merger

   • 2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon, page 394:

     If the presence of *θ in Sardinian words of Punic origin is indeed taken as evidence for an affricated realization of Semitic *z, this implies that the variety of Punic, that was the source of the Sardinian punicisms, did not exhibit the merger of Semitic *s, *z, *ṣ, *ś into /s/.

Synonyms

• combination
• fusion
• (linguistics): phonemic merger

Antonyms

• division

Derived terms

• antimerger
• cot-caught merger
• cure-fir merger
• cure-nurse merger
• demerger
• father-bother merger
• horse-hoarse merger
• hurry-furry merger
• line-loin merger
• low back merger
• Mary-marry-merry merger
• meet-meat merger
• megamerger
• mergerless
• mirror-nearer merger
• multimerger
• nonmerger
• nurse merger
• phonemic merger
• pin-pen merger
• postmerger
• premerger
• reverse merger
• weak vowel merger
• wine-whine merger

Related terms

• mergence

Translations

the act or process of merging

• Arabic: اِنْدِمَاج (ar) m (indimāj)
• Belarusian: зліццё n (zliccjó), зьліцьцё n (zʹlicʹcjó)
• Bulgarian: сливане (bg) n (slivane), обединяване (obedinjavane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 合併 / 合并 (zh) (hébìng)

• Czech: fúze (cs) f
• Dutch: samensmelting (nl) f, versmelting (nl), fusie (nl) f
• Finnish: yhdistyminen (fi), yhteensulautuminen, sulautuminen (fi), sulauttaminen
• French: fusionnement (fr) m, fusion (fr) f
• Georgian: შერწყმა (šerc̣q̇ma), გაერთიანება (gaertianeba)
• German: Verschmelzung (de) f, Fusion (de) f, Zusammenfügung f
• Hindi: विलय (hi) m (vilay)
• Hungarian: egyesülés (hu), összeolvadás (hu), fúzió (hu)
• Italian: fusione (it) f, unione (it) f
• Japanese: 合併 (ja) (がっぺい, gappei), 統合 (ja) (とうごう, tōgō)
• Korean: 합병 (ko) (hapbyeong)
• Macedonian: спојување n (spojuvanje)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sammenslåing (no) m or f

• Persian: ادغام (fa) (edġâm)
• Polish: fuzja (pl) f
• Portuguese: fusão (pt) f
• Russian: слия́ние (ru) n (slijánije), поглоще́ние (ru) n (pogloščénije) (takeover, absorption)
• Slovak: fúzia f
• Spanish: fusión (es) f, unión (es) f, mersión f, mergimiento m
• Swedish: sammanslagning (sv)
• Ukrainian: злиття́ n (zlyttjá), злива́ння n (zlyvánnja)

an absorption into one estate, contract etc.

• Dutch: opslorping, amalgamatie f
• Finnish: sulautuminen (fi), sulautuma (fi)
• Georgian: შთანთქმა (štantkma), შერწყმა (šerc̣q̇ma)
• Hindi: विलय (hi) m (vilay)
• Russian: слия́ние (ru) n (slijánije), поглоще́ние (ru) n (pogloščénije) (takeover, absorption)

type of sound change merging two or more sounds — see phonemic merger

the legal union of two or more corporations

• Armenian: միաձուլում (hy) (miajulum)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 合併 / 合并 (zh) (hébìng)

• Dutch: fusie (nl) f
• Finnish: fuusio (fi), yritysfuusio (fi), sulautuminen (fi)
• French: fusion (fr) f
• Georgian: შერწყმა (šerc̣q̇ma), შეერთება (šeerteba), გაერთიანება (gaertianeba)
• German: Fusion (de) f, Firmenzusammenschluss m, Zusammenschluss (de) m
• Hindi: विलय (hi) m (vilay)
• Indonesian: penggabungan (id)
• Japanese: 合併 (ja) (がっぺい, gappei), 統合 (ja) (とうごう, tōgō)
• Portuguese: fusão (pt) f
• Russian: слия́ние (ru) n (slijánije), поглоще́ние (ru) n (pogloščénije) (takeover, absorption), объедине́ние (ru) n (obʺjedinénije)
• Spanish: fusión (es) f
• Ukrainian: злиття́ n (zlyttjá)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} Zusammenschluss (de) m, ^{(please verify)} Fusion (de) f
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} fusion, ^{(please verify)} fusionamento
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} fusio f

See also

• alliance
• buyout
• rollup
• sellout
• takeover

References

• “merger”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “merger”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.