amalgam

noun

1. an alloy of mercury with another metal (usually silver) used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth; except for iron and platinum all metals dissolve in mercury and chemists refer to the resulting mercury mixtures as amalgams

Definition categories: substance, alloy, metal

2. a combination or blend of diverse things

- his theory is an amalgam of earlier ideas

Definition categories: group, combination

verb

1. (archaic, transitive, intransitive) To amalgamate.