merger

The joining of two or more separate groups or things into one.

• The two banks announced a merger.
• Staff worried about jobs after the company merger.
• Will the proposed merger create a larger team?

How to use it: merger of A and B (The merger of the two clubs created a stronger team.); merger between A and B (They announced a merger between the two banks.); merger with something (The company approved a merger with its largest rival.)

Similar words: combination, union

Opposites: split

Common phrases: a company merger, a proposed merger, approve a merger

A change in language in which different speech sounds become the same sound.

• This dialect has a vowel merger.
• The merger makes those two words sound identical.
• Researchers traced the merger across several generations of speakers.

How to use it: merger of A and B (The merger of these vowels is common in this dialect.)

Opposites: split

Common phrases: vowel merger, a phonemic merger