collection

plural collections

1. countableuncountableA set of items or amount of material procured, gathered or presented together.

   He has a superb coin collection.

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   The attic contains a remarkable collection of antiques, oddities, and random junk.

   The asteroid belt consists of a collection of dust, rubble, and minor planets.

   This year's Summer Collection will include a wide range of evening wear.

   He has a big collection of stamps.

   Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.

   1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii

2. countableuncountableentertainmentA set of pitch classes used by a composer.

   Simply put, the realm of available collections in a largely diatonic environment is much smaller than it is in truly atonal one.

   2012, Marguerite Boland, John Link, Elliott Carter Studies, page 22

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   The "collectional information" one receives is ambiguous since the collection { C, E, F, G, A } occurs in the key of C and in the key of F.

   2005, Neil Minturn, The Last Waltz of The Band, page 112

   In fact, students are often taught that specific collections—diatonic, octatonic, and whole-tone, etc.—typify these composers' compositional language.

   2009, Brian Moseley, “Form and Transpositional Combination in George Crumb's Lux Aeterna”, in Bruce Quaglia, Jack Boss, editors, Musical Currents from the Left Coast, page 174

3. countableuncountableThe activity of collecting.

   Collection of trash will occur every Thursday.

4. countableuncountablemathematical analysisA set of sets; used because such a thing is in general too large to comply with the formal definition of a set.
5. countableuncountableA gathering of money for charitable or other purposes, as by passing a contribution box for donations.

   The people here are very good to each other, too. When someone's house burned down, when someone was in the hospital, they took up collections for the people.

   1976 February 7, Rose Flower, quoting Jimmy McGrath, “Playland: The Friendliest Place In Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 13

6. countableuncountablelawDebt collection.
7. countableobsoleteuncountableThe act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts; also, that which is inferred.

   We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.

   1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC

8. UKcountableuncountableThe jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
9. countableplural normallyuncountableOxford UniversityA set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.
10. countableuncountableThe quality of being collected; calm composure.