collector
noun
Simple meaning
Someone who or thing that collects, or which creates or manages a collection.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kuhlehkterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
kəˈlɛktɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A person who or thing that collects, or which creates or manages a collection.
A person who is employed to collect payments (as for rent or taxes)
A mafioso whose task is to collect protection money from small businesses
A major sewer which collects sewerage from a number of smaller branch sewers
A compiler of books; one who collects scattered passages and puts them together in one book.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person who or thing that collects, or which creates or manages a collection.
Used this way, collector is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use collector
- “She is a keen stamp collector, with many rare items.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Members of a cooperative enterprise.
Things considered to be worth collecting (not necessarily valuable or antique).
Things considered to be worth collecting (not necessarily valuable or antique).
In conjunction with.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Someone who collects taxes for the government.
A collector and student of money (and coins in particular).
Someone employed to collect and dispose of refuse.
A toy consisting of vanes of colored paper or plastic that is pinned to a stick and spins when it is pointed into the wind.
Someone employed to collect and dispose of refuse.
A person who goes from house to house collecting rents for the owner.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.